Snowden leaks win Pulitzers

By Brian Stelter, CNN

updated 7:37 AM EDT, Tue April 15, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Two news organizations' stories about National Security Agency surveillance, based upon documents leaked by Edward Snowden, have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service, often described as the highest prize in American journalism.

The Washington Post and United States arm of The Guardian each received the prize on Monday.

The Pulitzers are administered by Columbia University. More than a dozen prizes were announced on Monday, but the recognition of the NSA reporting was most significant because of the questions raised by Snowden's leaks and the reaction to them.

The Pulitzer board's decision is bound to be controversial; then again, snubbing the NSA coverage would have been controversial, too.

Snowden, who has been living in Russia while seeking asylum from U.S. prosecution, said in a statement that the Pulitzer board's recognition of the coverage was "vindication for everyone who believes that the public has a role in government."

"We owe it to the efforts of the brave reporters and their colleagues who kept working in the face of extraordinary intimidation, including the forced destruction of journalistic materials, the inappropriate use of terrorism laws, and so many other means of pressure to get them to stop what the world now recognizes was work of vital public importance."

While Snowden provided a trove of documents, reporters including Glenn Greenwald, working for the Guardian; Barton Gellman, working for The Post; and Laura Poitras, who worked with both, pored over the raw information, decided with their editors what parts were ethical to publish, and turned the information into stories that stunned readers around the world.

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Snowden leaks win Pulitzers