Snowden awarded Swedish alternative Nobel

Edward Snowden has been declared one of the winners of a Swedish human rights award for his disclosures of top secret government surveillance programmes, Al Jazeera reports.

The former National Security Agency contractor on Wednesday split the honorary portion of the 2014 Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the alternative Nobel with Alan Rusbridger, editor of British newspaper The Guardian, which has published a series of articles based on documents leaked by Snowden.

The 1.5m kronor ($210,000) cash award was also shared by Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir, Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission and US environmentalist Bill McKibben.

Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honours efforts that prize founder Jacob von Uexkull felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes.

Foundation director Ole von Uexkull the award creators nephew said all winners have been invited to the December 1 award ceremony in Stockholm, though he added its unclear whether Snowden can attend.

We will start discussions with the Swedish government and his lawyers in due course to discuss the potential arrangements for his participation, von Uexkull told the AP news agency.

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Snowden awarded Swedish alternative Nobel