By Kate Drozynski, Special to syracuse.com

Alan Rusbridger, editor in chief of the Guardian, was honored with the 2014 Tully Award for Free Speech by Syracuse University's Newhouse School on Wednesday night.

The award, presented by the Newhouse School's Tully Center, recognizes journalists who exhibit courage in the face of threats to free speech.

The Guardian has been the subject of freedom of press and libel controversy and litigation during Rusbridger's nearly 20-year editorship. The news outlet published information provided by WikiLeaks and broke coverage of phone hacking by the media that led to an inquiry into industry standards and ethics.

Most notably, though, the Guardian broke the story of Edward Snowden, a contracted National Security Administration analyst responsible for bringing to light details of global surveillance.

"Nothing like this had ever happened," Rusbringer said during a symposium moderated by Newhouse Professor and Director of the Tully Center Roy Gutterman.

Rusbringer and the Guardian had concerns publishing the information provided by Snowden.

"We thought long and hard about what we were doing," he said.

Rusbridger detailed the experience of working with journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill to review Snowden's information for publication. The team made decisions regarding what information was pertinent to publish and what should remain undisclosed. They elected not to look at documents regarding military surveillance and brought the story to American and British agencies before publication.

"Dealing with the American agencies was a good deal easier than the British agencies," Rusbridger said. "We didn't want anyone to be surprised."

The aftermath of publication led to injunctions by the British government to cease printing and remove the stories from the Guardian website. After a series of what Rusbridger described as "very British conversations," the Guardian was forced to destroy the computers containing the Snowden documents.

"I didn't want the state to smash up our computers," he said, "so we did it ourselves. They came and watched. There's an art to smashing up a computer."

Rusbridger emphasized a need for separation of government and the press and a balance between civil liberties and national security. He likened the need for journalism to the need for a fire department or a police service - an essential function.

He addressed the changing format of journalism, from strictly print to digital and mobile, and noted to the audience of Newhouse students and fledgling journalists that this creates an exciting opportunity to marry the eternal fundamentals of good journalism with new technology.

"I love the fact of having no idea where journalism is going," he said. "To re-imagine what journalism is is just so exciting."

Rusbridger fielded questions from students and journalists during a Q&A after his discussion with Gutterman. He was then presented with the Tully Award by Gutterman and Dean Lorraine Branham.

The Newhouse School displays the words of the First Amendment prominently on the building's facade.

The words inscribed on this building mean something," said Rusbridger. "The First Amendment means something."