Courageous Journalism

The Pulitzer Prize was awarded for the exclusive coverage of the Snowden case as the media reclaims its oversight role.

At a time when journalism faces serious difficulties due to cultural change as well as transformations surrounding the industrial model that sustains it, the Pulitzer Prize was awarded to two newspapers — The Guardian and The Washington Post — for their exclusive coverage of the massive espionage conducted by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The newspapers have thereby reclaimed the timely and healthy role of good reporting. The prize rewards the courage shown to uphold the original purpose of reporting: with rigor and independence, to provide citizens with truthful and corroborated information and to exercise the oversight of power.

The jury considered the origin and circumstances that have surrounded the exclusive stories and, significantly, decided to award them the prize despite the fact that the principal source, former NSA agent Edward Snowden, is currently a fugitive who fled to Moscow after having been charged in his own country of treason and espionage. The prize has not been given for writing based on leaks since the publication in 1971 by the New York Times of the so-called Pentagon Papers, which showed how the U.S. government had repeatedly misled the public about the Vietnam War. In the case of the Snowden leaks, the Pulitzer jury highlights the role of investigative journalism in sparking a “debate about the relationship between the government and the public over issues of security and privacy.” The debate is possible thanks to the courage of the source and the work of verification and follow-up done by the recipients. Professionally responsible journalism guarantees the reliability of news reporting. Regardless of its sources, only journalism that is committed to the truth can provide the freedom of information necessary for a functioning democracy.

The Snowden leaks revealed the extent to which citizens’ private lives, including people who hold high offices, are vulnerable to the improper use of technology to scrutinize all kinds of communications. In today’s world, in which the bitterest conflicts are often resolved within the hidden would of politics and the economy, where power often succumbs to the temptation to cross any established red lines to achieve its goals, press coverage must be unfaltering in exercising its oversight function.