Edward Snowden was granted the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “alternative Nobel Prize,” in the Swedish Parliament on Monday for leaking information about the National Security Agency’s surveillance program. And though Snowden’s father was present at the “emotional ceremony,” he did not accept the award in his son’s name in hopes that one day the whistle-blower will be able to travel to Stockholm and retrieve it himself.

Several members of the Scandinavian country’s parliament gave Snowden a standing ovation. Some have called for the awardee to be granted asylum in Sweden, but in the meantime, Snowden remains in exile in Moscow.

The Guardian:

Philanthropist Jakob von Uexküll, who established the [Right Livelihood] award in 1980, told the parliament: “So Mr Snowden, your Right Livelihood Award is waiting for you. We trust that Sweden will make it possible for you to collect your award here in Stockholm in person in the very near future.”

The awards jury, in its citation, said Snowden was being honoured “for his courage and skill in revealing the unprecedented extent of state surveillance violating basic democratic processes and constitutional rights”.

The Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, was also among the recipients…In his address, Rusbridger said: “One of the challenges Snowden poses for us is the recognition that there is no such thing as the public interest. No such thing as one single, monolithic interest that overrides all others.”

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—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata

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