‘Citizenfour’ Oscar is latest honour for Snowden journalists

WASHINGTON - The best documentary Oscar awarded to "Citizenfour" is the latest in a string of accolades for the journalists who brought to light the trove of classified documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The film directed and produced by Laura Poitras reveals how she worked with other reporters to lift the lid on the sweeping surveillance programs of the US National Security Agency and other intelligence services -- revelations which shocked many in America and around the world.

"The most important decisions being made affecting all of us are made in secret. We lose our ability to check the powers that control," Poitras said Sunday as she accepted the award at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, with journalist Glenn Greenwald at her side.

"Thank you to Edward Snowden for his courage and for the many other whistleblowers, and I share this with other journalists who are exposing truth."

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Snowden said in a statement released to the American Civil Liberties Union that he hoped people seeing the film would "be inspired by its message that ordinary citizens, working together, can change the world."

"Citizenfour" revolves around a series of conversations with Snowden filmed in Hong Kong, where the onetime NSA contractor explains the powerful intelligence apparatus of the US government and its allies.

It notably shows Snowden -- who used the pseudonym "Citizenfour" when he first contacted Poitras -- explaining these programs to her, Greenwald and Guardian journalist Ewen MacAskill.

Poitras told a recent New York Times forum that the film "has something hopeful in it... because it's people basically being willing to be courageous and say something about what they see as wrong in the world."

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'Citizenfour' Oscar is latest honour for Snowden journalists