Here's the #Pulitzer citation ..for Guardian and Washington Post pic.twitter.com/DnrGqgusCM — alan rusbridger (@arusbridger) April 14, 2014

Update: Here is a statement from Edward Snowden.

Big news on the 2014 Pulitzer Prize winners, with potentially big consequences for future whistleblowers and the journalists who report on what they leak. From the NYT:

"The Washington Post and the Guardian won the Pulitzer Prize for public service, among the most prestigious awards in journalism, for their stories based on National Security Agency documents leaked by the former government contractor Edward J. Snowden."

It would be incredible if this honor begins to change how the US government treats Mr. Snowden, who is in exile in Russia.

It would be amazing if the award sparks a shift in the government's posture toward the reporters who covered Snowden's revelations about the NSA's surveillance programs. They include Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, who returned to the United States last Friday (without incident) for the first time since the leaks broke; the list also includes the Washington Post's Barton Gellman, whom our Cory Doctorow interviewed on stage about the coverage at SXSW 2014.



The Pulitzer committee said it gave the award for the news organizations' "revelation of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, marked by authoritative and insightful reports that helped the public understand how the disclosures fit into the larger framework of national security."

A complete list of winners is here. The Boston Globe won in the breaking news category for its coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings.