STOCKHOLM: Edward Snowden was among the winners on Wednesday of a Swedish human rights award, sometimes referred to as the “alternative Nobel”, for his disclosures of top secret surveillance programmes.

The former National Security Agency contractor split the honorary portion of the 2014 Right Livelihood Award with Alan Rusbridger, editor of British newspaper The Guardian, which has published a series of articles on government surveillance based on documents leaked by Mr Snowden.

The 1.5 million kronor ($210,000) cash award was shared by 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.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2014