Golden Globes voters hit with antitrust lawsuit

Yahoo – AFP, 4 August 2020

HFPA President Lorenzo Soria is named as a defendant in an antitrust lawsuit
against the group which awards the Golden Globes each year (AFP Photo/Robyn BECK)

Los Angeles (AFP) - The exclusive group of film journalists that awards the Golden Globes was accused Monday of sabotaging non-members while gorging on lavish perks and unparalleled access to Hollywood stars.

An antitrust lawsuit filed against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association said the organization illegally monopolized entertainment reporting in Los Angeles while creating near-impossible barriers to entry for new members.

"All year long, HFPA members enjoy all-expenses-paid trips to film festivals around the world where the studios treat them lavishly and accommodate their every desire," said the suit brought by Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa.

"Qualified applicants for admission to the HFPA are virtually always rejected because the majority of its 87 members are unwilling to share or dilute the enormous economic benefits they receive as members," it adds.

The HFPA wields considerable power due to its annual Golden Globes -- one of Tinseltown's biggest and glitziest award shows, which is seen as a key step to success at the all-important Oscars.

Yet its membership -- which exclusively decides who walks away with the coveted Globes each year -- is shrouded in mystery.

Though some members work for well-respected foreign media outlets, many are freelancers writing for obscure publications.

The lawsuit details instances of members being wined and dined by Hollywood studios, including a Disney press trip to a Singapore five-star hotel last year.

"The studios, of course, resent having to lavish enormous sums of money on, and being required to cater to, the desires of a few dozen aging journalists who are regularly heard snoring through screenings, but given the importance of the Golden Globes, they see no way to end the farce," says the lawsuit.

Flaa, the plaintiff, applied for membership in 2018 and last year, but was rejected both times.

In her lawsuit, she accuses rival Scandinavian journalists of blocking her entry even though she is qualified to join according to HFPA criteria.

Any foreign journalist seeking entry must be sponsored by two members, and a newcomer's application can be rejected if one member of the association vetoes it.

The HFPA, which has yet to be served with the complaint, denied the allegations and accused Flaa of "ongoing attempts to shake down the HFPA."

"The HFPA has refused to pay ransom, telling Ms Flaa that membership was not gained through intimidation," the group said in a statement to AFP.

"Ms Flaa and her attorney are now asking a court to order her into the organization and pay her.

"The HFPA takes seriously its obligations as an organization and its dedication to foreign journalism and philanthropy, and it will vigorously defend against these baseless claims."

Time names sexual abuse 'Silence Breakers' as Person of the Year

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine TRIOMPHE, December 6, 2017

This image obtained courtesy of Time magazine, shows
the 2017 Time Person of the Year: "The Silence Breakers"

Time magazine named as Person of the Year Wednesday "the silence breakers" who triggered a national reckoning by revealing the pervasiveness of sexual harassment, assault and abuse in US life.

President Donald Trump was runner-up in the prestigious ranking, ahead of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Time designated as "silence breakers" the individuals, mostly women, who came forward this year to publicly expose patterns of sexual harassment, assault and even rape by some of society's most powerful public figures.Those recognized by Time range from famous actresses who took on disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein to everyday women who shared their stories of abuse using the hashtag #MeToo and its foreign language equivalents.

The accusations against Weinstein, who has denied engaging in non-consensual sex, proved a tipping point for a flood of sordid revelations involving other titans of Hollywood, big business, politics and the news media.

Many once-admired leaders in their fields have been fired or suspended, their careers left in tatters.

One of the figures singled out by Time, Ashley Judd, was the first actress to come forward on the record to make accusations against the 65-year-old Weinstein.

She was followed by more than a hundred others, and a watershed moment began.

"When a movie star says #MeToo, it becomes easier to believe the cook who's been quietly enduring for years," a Time article read.

"This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries.

"These silence breakers have started a revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day, and in the past two months alone, their collective anger has spurred immediate and shocking results: nearly every day, CEOs have been fired, moguls toppled, icons disgraced. In some cases, criminal charges have been brought."

The Person of the Year announcement came as The New York Times published a report detailing a widespread "complicity machine" of powerful relationships that enabled Weinstein to silence or intimidate his accusers for years.

Weinstein has denied via his lawyers and spokespeople that he engaged in any non-consensual behavior. He has not been charged with any crimes, though investigations have been launched in London, Los Angeles and New York.

'Open secrets'

A number of men also have revealed they were victims of sexual abuse, including Anthony Rapp, who accused Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey of making sexual advances on him when he was a teenager.

More than a dozen men have since come forward with similar accusations against Spacey, some of whom were teens at the time of the alleged abuse.

The wave of allegations has also hit the US Congress, where the longest serving member of the House, Democrat John Conyers, announced his retirement Tuesday and pressure is mounting on Democratic Senator Al Franken to resign. Both men have been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct.

The scope of the problem nationwide is reflected in a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday: it said 47 percent of American women say they have been sexually assaulted.

On Time's cover is a composite group photograph featuring Judd, along with singer Taylor Swift and ex-Uber engineer Susan Fowler.

"The galvanizing actions of the women on our cover... along with those of hundreds of others, and of many men as well, have unleashed one of the highest-velocity shifts in our culture since the 1960s," Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal said in a statement.

Calling #MeToo a "powerful accelerant," Felsenthal noted that the hashtag has been used millions of times in at least 85 countries.

"The idea that influential, inspirational individuals shape the world could not be more apt this year," Felsenthal said.

"For giving voice to open secrets, for moving whisper networks onto social networks, for pushing us all to stop accepting the unacceptable, The Silence Breakers are the 2017 Person of the Year."

Time has designated an individual or group who has most influenced the year's news and events as Person of the Year since 1927.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who won the Time honor in 2015 at the height of the refugee influx into her country, paid tribute to the "Silence Breakers."

"We must thank them for their courage in breaking the silence about sexual assault and for the global discussion they sparked," she said, according to her spokesman Steffen Seibert on Twitter.

#UPDATE Time magazine names as Person of the Year "the silence breakers" who triggered a national reckoning by revealing the pervasiveness of sexual harassment, assault and abuse in US life https://t.co/ihddjc9YnF

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 6, 2017

Heckler & Koch given negative "Closed Oyster" award for lack of transparency

A German association promoting investigative journalism has awarded arms maker Heckler & Koch with its "Closed Oyster" award. Netzwerk Recherche said the firm had attempted to have spies follow critical journalists.

Deutsche Welle, 5 July 2015

Announcing the award on Saturday, journalist Hauke Friederichs said that by awarding the "Closed Oyster" Netzwerk Recherche was sending a signal for transparency and freedom of access in media coverage.

In May, a defense ministry official was removed from his job after trying to get Germany's Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) to cover up negative reports about H&K's G36 rifle, which is used by the Bundeswehr. The company was said to have lobbied the government to do mobilize the spies.

Friederichs said at the awards ceremony, "In the conflict zones of the world Heckler & Koch is as well known as Daimler-Benz."

The new chair of Netzwerk Recherche, Julia Stone, said, "It is well known that Heckler & Koch is reluctant to answer questions of any kind and prefers to speak through lawyers, and has even threatened journalists."

Stone claimed Heckler & Koch had taken secrecy to a "new level."

Heckler & Koch CEO Andreas Heeschen rejected the allegations and said, "I would like at this point to emphasize once again that we have at no time discussed or demanded spying on journalists by the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD)."

Heckler & Koch is one of the world's leading manufacturers of small arms including pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, precision rifles, and machine guns. It employs about 650 people and supplies its weapons to NATO countries and also to Egypt, Bahrain, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The non-profit Netzwerk Recherche association was set up in 2001 by 35 journalists to promote investigative journalism in Germany. It works with journalists to aid their research, especially if officials impede the free flow of information.

It is the first time in the 13 years of awarding the "Closed Oyster" that the prize has been given to an arms manufacturer.

jm/bk (dpa, epd)

Related Article:

Defense Ministry official sought to quell reporting about the G36

Saudi Arabia gives top prize to cleric who blames George Bush for 9/11

Controversial Indian preacher Zakir Naik awarded the King Faisal international prize for promoting Islam through his hugely popular Peace TV channel

The Guardian - AFP, 1 March 2015

Zakir Naik siad ‘even a fool will know’ that the 9/11 attacks were an
‘inside job’. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

An Indian television preacher who has called the 9/11 attacks an “inside job” received one of Saudi Arabia’s most prestigious prizes on Sunday, for “service to Islam”.

Zakir Naik, president of the Islamic Research Foundation in India, was one of five recipients of the King Faisal international prize from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman during a ceremony at a luxury Riyadh hotel.

The annual prizes are a project of the King Faisal Foundation, established in 1976 by the children of King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz who died in 1975.

Naik was honoured for being one of the most renowned non-Arabic speaking promoters of Islam. He founded the Peace TV channel, billed as the world’s only channel specialising in comparative religion.

It has an estimated English-language audience exceeding 100 million, according to his award citation.

“Islam is the only religion that can bring peace to the whole of humanity,” he said in a video biography aired at the ceremony.

In a July 2008 Peace TV broadcast, Naik suggested that al-Qaida was not responsible for flying hijacked airliners into New York’s World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, killing almost 3,000 people.

“Even a fool will know that this was an inside job,” he said in the video, claiming then-president George W Bush was behind the attacks.

In 2010 Naik was reportedly barred from entering Britain for “numerous comments” which showed his “unacceptable behaviour”.

Naik said on Sunday that he would donate all of his $200,000 prize money to Peace TV.

The other prizewinners were:

In Islamic studies, Saudi Arabia’s Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Kaki for his research on the cultural heritage of the Muslim holy city of Medina

In medicine, Jeffrey Ivan Gordon of the United States, whose research has enhanced understanding of diseases such as obesity, which is a growing problem in Saudi Arabia

Michael Gratzel of Switzerland for his development of solar cells, and co-winner Omar Mwannes Yaghi of the United States for his work in the new field of metal organic frameworks

Related Articles:

GOP lawmaker: You will ‘rethink everything’ when full 9/11 report is released

What Really Happened on 9/11? (Matthew’s Message, April 26, 2005)

Kryon Q&A

Question (2002): Dear Kryon, A friend and I are meditating on the recent shark attacks and feel that it has to do with the planetary changes. We just can’t understand why they have become aggressive. What is the message the sharks are bringing? Why is this happening?

—Thank you,

Maryann

Answer: Indeed there are changes with the environment and also with biology regarding the 12-year grid change. I will first give you what was happening in general: What you are seeing are mammals, amphibians, insects, and even fish that are in areas that are new to them. Every life-form that migrates is effected by magnetics. All life forms that follows certain feeding scenarios and are “following the food” have the potential to be affected. This is due to the changing of the magnetic ley lines of the earth as we have stated before.

The areas where you can see in the ocean most clearly are within those migration patterns closest to the land. Where the ocean interfaces with the land, there are challenges for all these creatures for at least one of their generations. Whales will beach themselves by following old magnetics headings that now “drive” them into peninsula’s and other land areas that were marginally on the edge of their old paths. Birds, amphibians, and insects will be seen to do odd things for awhile.

So these shark fish may be in greater numbers in these coastal areas than in the past, but the increased aggressive behavior was actually something else: There was a tremendous “release” of energy due to the Sept. 11 event. Much like the energy of earthquakes and other earth movement, much of the environment “feels it” coming. We have spoken about how the Sept. 11 event was not a surprise to the earth. [See Lee’s article “Did Kryon give us hints”] So, some of the new actions of these fish were due to an actual energy buildup of coming events... of which you now understand.

If you are paying attention, therefore, you might ask, “Does this mean that Human consciousness issues affect the actual earth?” Yes they do! Finally you may begin to see how global consciousness is tied into the environment, and even to basic physics and reality. They are not separate, and never were. The indigenous knew it, and now the “modern” world is beginning to wonder.

Blessed is the Human Being who understands that what they think, do, and intend, actually drives the reality of the dirt of the planet!

Cheers in France as economist Tirole wins Nobel

Yahoo – AFP, Hugues Honore, 13 Oct 2014

French economist Jean Tirole, seen here in June 2008, was awarded the Nobel

 Economics Prize "for his analysis of market power and regulation", according to the

Royal Academy of Sciences (AFP Photo/Eric Cabanis)

Stockholm (AFP) - Jean Tirole won the Nobel Economics Prize on Monday for research on reining in corporate giants, a second French award this season hailed as a slap in the face for "France bashers".

"One of the most influential economists of our time," the jury called Tirole, whose fellow countryman Patrick Modiano took the prize for literature last week.

"Most of all he has clarified how to understand and regulate industries with a few powerful firms," it said of the 61-year-old professor at Toulouse 1 Capitole University.

Taming huge corporations, and ensuring they don't reap huge profits at the expense of ordinary consumers, has emerged as a growing concern in recent years.

The global financial crisis -- triggered by a small number of giant players in the banking sector -- has further pushed the complex issue up the agenda for global policymakers.

"Banking is a very hard thing to regulate, and we economists have to do more work on this," Tirole told the Nobel Committee after learning he had won the prize, worth eight million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million, 878,000 euros).

Thumbing noses at 'French-bashing'

News of his win triggered delight in Paris -- as well as a note of vindication from the French prime minister, irked by a string of articles decrying the morose state of the nation.

"After Patrick Modiano, yet another Frenchman has come to the fore: Congratulations to Jean Tirole!" Manuel Valls tweeted after the announcement. "Talk about thumbing your nose at 'French-bashing'."

Modiano's win last week was already hailed as a boost for a country in the doldrums with a stagnating economy and deeply unpopular government.

President Francois Hollande said the prize puts the spotlight on "the quality of the research carried out in our nation."

Tirole's work, the Nobel jury said, has provided a framework for designing policies for a range of industries from banking to telecommunications.

His citation comes amid growing controversy over the market power of such companies as Amazon and Google.

"Drawing on these new insights, governments can better encourage powerful firms to become more productive and, at the same time, prevent them from harming competitors and customers," the jury said.

The concentration of corporate power has been a key concern for policymakers since the 1980s, when advanced countries moved progressively to allowing markets a freer role.

The trend has been strengthened across industries by technological advances and globalisation, which produced unprecedented wealth but also exacerbated inequality.

Dominate thy neighbour

Laureate of the 2014 Nobel Prize in

Economics, French economist Jean Tirole and

his wife Nathalie are seen at the Toulouse

School of Economics (TSE) on October 13, 

2014 in Toulouse (AFP Photo/Remy Gabalda)

A lot of Tirole's research has focused on motivation and salary, with regard to large companies and the rise in pay among the top tiers of leadership -- like Wall Street chief executives.

But his Nobel Prize came for his work on oligopoly and game theory -- or the study of how strategic interactions affect an outcome.

An oligopoly is a state of limited competition, a popular example being the cellular companies Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, which together control around 90 percent of the market. A monopoly, on the other hand, is the dominance of one seller in the market.

Tirole's research has also shown how some companies -- for example producers of widely-used but patented software -- are able to dominate not just their own industry, but also related ones further down the production chain.

One of his chief contributions is the notion that market dominance works differently in different industries, according to the Nobel jury.

His research suggests, for example, that it can sometimes make sense to allow firms to undercut each other by setting prices below production costs -- something traditionally disciplined under competition, or anti-trust, law.

"The best regulation or competition policy should therefore be carefully adapted to every industry's specific conditions."

American near-monopoly

The prize will be awarded at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the prizes' creator, Swedish scientist and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.

Appropriately for an economist who has dedicated much of his career to the study of monopolies, Tirole's award reduces an American near-monopoly over the Nobel economics prize in recent years.

Over the past decade, 18 out 20 economics prize laureates have been from the United States, including one Israeli-American.

Last year, US scholars Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller won for their work on spotting trends in the asset markets.

The economics prize winds up this year's Nobel season, marked by the award Friday of the peace prize to 17-year-old Pakistani Malala Yousafzai and India's Kailash Satyarthi.

Related Article:

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“… 5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

Number five: There will be those who think it impossible to have a search for integrity and fairness in all things. In other words, Human Beings will not simply go with what they are told is the status quo. They will look at it and they will say, "Well, I think it could be better. I'm going to look around for something that has more integrity and fairness." Yes, there will be those who tell you, "Look, the institutions hold all the cards and you have to do it their way. If you want health insurance or you want loans from the banks for your home, you better do it their way." I have news for you. Even this is going to change.

"What are you going to do?" the Human asks. "They hold all the power!" In the past, there was nothing you could do. Now I'll tell you what the potentials are. You're going to pull out the puzzle and look past the walls of the maze. You're going to say, "Well, then I'll start my own institution." And some will. The new institutions, based on integrity, will sweep right past an old energy. In other words, there will be those who are young today who are going to start a new way of banking, a new way of health care, and a new way of insurance. And when you see these plans, you'll say, "Why didn't we think of that?"

Have you seen innovation and invention in the past decade that required thinking out of the box of an old reality? Indeed, you have. I can't tell you what's coming, because you haven't thought of it yet! But the potentials of it are looming large. Let me give you an example, Let us say that 20 years ago, you predicted that there would be something called the Internet on a device you don't really have yet using technology that you can't imagine. You will have full libraries, buildings filled with books, in your hand - a worldwide encyclopedia of everything knowable, with the ability to look it up instantly! Not only that, but that look-up service isn't going to cost a penny! You can call friends and see them on a video screen, and it won't cost a penny! No matter how long you use this service and to what depth you use it, the service itself will be free.

Now, anyone listening to you back then would perhaps have said, "Even if we can believe the technological part, which we think is impossible, everything costs something. There has to be a charge for it! Otherwise, how would they stay in business?" The answer is this: With new invention comes new paradigms of business. You don't know what you don't know, so don't decide in advance what you think is coming based on an old energy world. …”

Guardian and Washington Post win Pulitzer prize for NSA revelations

Pair awarded highest accolade in US journalism, winning Pulitzer prize for public service for stories on NSA surveillance 

theguardian.com, Ed Pilkington in New York, Monday 14 April 2014

The Guardian revealed the NSA's bulk collection of phone records 10 months
ago based on Edward Snowden's leaks. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The Guardian and the Washington Post have been awarded the highest accolade in US journalism, winning the Pulitzer prize for public service for their groundbreaking articles on the National Security Agency’s surveillance activities based on the leaks of Edward Snowden.

The award, announced in New York on Monday, comes 10 months after the Guardian published the first report based on the leaks from Snowden, revealing the agency’s bulk collection of US citizens’ phone records.

In the series of articles that ensued, teams of journalists at the Guardian and the Washington Post published the most substantial disclosures of US government secrets since the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam war in 1971.

The Pulitzer committee praised the Guardian for its "revelation of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, helping through aggressive reporting to spark a debate about the relationship between the government and the public over issues of security and privacy".

Snowden, in a statement, said: "Today's decision is a 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 recognises was work of vital public importance."

He said that his actions in leaking the documents that formed the basis of the reporting "would have been meaningless without the dedication, passion, and skill of these newspapers".

At the Guardian, the reporting was led by Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and film-maker Laura Poitras, and at the Washington Post by Barton Gellman, who also co-operated with Poitras. All four journalists were honoured with a George Polk journalism award last week for their work on the NSA story.

Investigative reporter Laura Poitras accepts the George Polk Award alongside
 Barton Gellman, far left, and Ewen MacAskill. Photograph: Andrew Burton/
Getty Images

The NSA revelations have reverberated around the world and sparked a debate in the US over the balance between national security and personal privacy. On the back of the disclosures, President Obama ordered a White House review into data surveillance, a number of congressional reform bills have been introduced, and protections have begun to be put in place to safeguard privacy for foreign leaders and to increase scrutiny over the NSA’s mass data collection.

"We are truly honoured that our journalism has been recognised with the Pulitzer Prize," said Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the Guardian. "This was a complex story, written, edited and produced by a team of wonderful journalists. We are particularly grateful for our colleagues across the world who supported the Guardian in circumstances which threatened to stifle our reporting. And we share this honour, not only with our colleagues at the Washington Post, but also with Edward Snowden, who risked so much in the cause of the public service which has today been acknowledged by the award of this prestigious prize."

Janine Gibson, editor-in-chief of Guardian US, said: "We're extremely proud and gratified to have been honoured by the Pulitzer board. It's been an intense, exhaustive and sometimes chilling year working on this story and we're grateful for the acknowledgement by our peers that the revelations made by Edward Snowden and the work by the journalists involved represent a high achievement in public service."

Among the disclosures were:

• the NSA’s mass dragnet of phone records of millions of Americans

• the program codenamed Prism used by the NSA and its UK counterpart GCHQ to gain back-door entry into the data of nine giant internet companies including Google and Facebook

• the cracking of internet encryption by the NSA and GCHQ that undermined personal security for web users ;

• NSA surveillance of phone calls made by 35 world leaders.

The coverage of the Snowden leaks presented a particularly thorny issue for the 19-strong panel of journalists, academics and writers who recommend the winners. The stream of disclosures invoked strong and polarised reactions in the US and around the world.

In January, Obama said that the debate on the acceptable limits of government surveillance prompted by the articles “will make us stronger”. But other prominent US politicians such as Mike Rogers, Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, have suggested journalism based on Snowden’s leaks was tantamount to dealing in stolen property.

Snowden has been charged with three offences in the US. He is the eighth person to be charged with breaking the 1917 Espionage Act by the Obama administration – more than all the prosecutions brought under previous presidents combined.

The Guardian's US operation, headquartered in New York, was incorporated as an American company in 2011 and recognised last year by the Pulitzer board as a US news outlet eligible to be considered for its prizes.

Last month editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger was given a special award at the European press awards; earlier this month the Guardian was named newspaper of the year in the UK; and there it has been awarded other prizes for online and investigative journalism in Germany, Spain and the US.

The Snowden stories were edited from New York by Guardian US editor-in-chief Janine Gibson and deputy editor Stuart Millar. The UK end of the reporting was led by deputy editor Paul Johnson and investigations editor Nick Hopkins.

Others on the team of journalists included Spencer Ackerman, James Ball, David Blishen, Gabriel Dance, Julian Borger, Nick Davies, David Leigh and Dominic Rushe. In Australia the editor was Katharine Viner and the reporter Lenore Taylor.

The Pulitzers have been bestowed since 1917, at the bequest of the legendary newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer who established the honour in his will as a means of encouraging publicly-spirited journalism. The awards have shifted and grown over the years to reflect the modern publishing landscape and today stands at 22 categories, including 14 journalism awards and seven gongs for books, drama and music. All the awards are administered by Columbia University.

Snowden receives Sam Adams Award in Moscow

RT.com, October 11, 2013

The first videos of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have surfaced since he received asylum in Russia. The footage, provided by WikiLeaks, was taken during the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence awards ceremony.

The video fragments of a meeting, attended by the former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, former NSA executive Thomas Andrews Drake and former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project, and Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks – all whistleblowers in their own respects – were released by WikiLeaks on Friday.

In the first video appearance since he was granted asylum in Russia, Snowden spoke about US government transparency and dangers to democracy caused by the NSA mass spying programs.

“This is not about any sort of particular program, this is about a trend in the relationship between the governing and the governed in America,” Snowden said speaking about the government transparency situation in the US. “That is increasingly coming into conflict with what we expect as a free and democratic people. If we can’t understand the policies and the programs of our government, we cannot grant our consent in regulating them.”

“As someone very clever said recently, we don’t have an oversight problem in the US we have an undersight problem.”

The problem has grown up to a point where Americans have “an executive, the Department of Justice, that’s unwilling to prosecute high officials who lied to Congress and the country on camera but they’ll stop at nothing to prosecute someone who told them the truth,” Snowden added.

Snowden has expressed his satisfaction that people around the globe are starting to understand mass surveillance doesn’t increase safety at all.

“People all over the world are realizing that these programs don’t make us more safe, they hurt our economy, they hurt our country they limit our ability to speak and think and live and be creative, to have relationships, to associate freely.”

There is a huge difference between surveillance programs aimed at increasing security and Big Brother mass surveillance, the NSA leaker added.

“There’s a far cry between legal programs, legitimate spying, legitimate law enforcement where it’s targeted, it’s based on reasonable suspicion, an individualized suspicion, and a warranted action – and a sort of dragnet mass surveillance that puts entire populations under a sort of eye that sees everything, even when it’s not needed.”

Although it is known that the ceremony took place in Moscow, the exact location remains a mystery for security reasons. In an exclusive interview with RT Julian Assange said Edward Snowden is safe in Russia, but the fates of journalists who helped him and published his leaks are now of more concern for WikiLeaks.

After a meeting with Snowden, the four whistleblowers – former NSA executive Thomas Andrews Drake, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, former FBI agent Coleen Rowley and Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project – all met in RT’s to share their thoughts on Snowden and tell their stories.

RT photo / Semyon Khorunzhy

Of Snowden, Jesselyn Radack said that “he looked great. He seemed very centered and brilliant, smart, funny, very engaged. I thought he looked very well.”

Ray McGovern, called Snowden “an extraordinary person” who has “no regrets” for his actions.

Thomas Andrews Drake is a former NSA senior executive and a whistleblower indicted in 2010 for espionage after leaking documents to the press that alleged that the intelligence organization had committed fraud, waste and abuse against the American people. For his whistleblowing activities, Drake was honored in 2011 with the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling and co-recipient of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence award.

In the studio he recalled his experience being a whistleblower.

“I disclosed high crimes and misdemeanors by the US government while at the National Security Agency (NSA). That involved both secret surveillance and massive fraud, waste and abuse.  And no regrets at all in blowing the whistle, recognizing that I paid a very high price,” Drake told RT.

Coleen Rowley is a former FBI agent and whistleblower. In 2002, Rowley testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee revealing problems facing the US intelligence community by highlighting some of the pre 9/11 intelligence lapses.

“When you saw this 180-degree switch to the war paradigm and the use of intelligence rather than judicial process, due process, you know, the law of interrogation – I had to speak out and explain the failures of 9/11.” Rowley told RT.

For her activity TIME magazine chose her as one of three whistleblower persons of the year.

Former ethics adviser to the Department of Justice, Jesselyn Radack, became a whistleblower after she exposed the FBI for committing violations in their interrogation of John Walker Lindh, an alleged Taliban fighter captured in 2001 in Afghanistan, without an attorney present. She also exposed the Department of Justice for allegedly attempting to suppress that information. “The justice department was willing to cut corners to prosecute people,” she told RT.

Related Articles:

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Guardian's NSA revelations: spies to go under spotlight

Whistleblower gets record $14 million payout from SEC

NBC News, Jonathan Dienst and Jim Forkin, October 1, 2013

The seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hangs
 on the wall at their headquarters in Washington, in this June 24, 2011 file photo.
(REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

Regulators said Tuesday they had given a record $14 million reward to a whistleblower whose information led to an enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission that recovered “substantial investor funds.”

The SEC did not identify the case or the company that was sanctioned because the whistleblower has chosen to remain anonymous, but the $14 million award was the biggest yet granted by the SEC’s whistleblower program, which was launched in 2011.

“Our whistleblower program already has had a big impact on our investigations by providing us with high-quality, meaningful tips,” said SEC chair Mary Jo White. “We hope an award like this encourages more individuals with information to come forward.” 

The SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower rewards original information that results in enforcement with sanctions above $1 million. Awards to tipsters can range up to 30 percent of the money recovered.

The whistleblower who received $14 million provided information that allowed the SEC to investigate an enforcement action more quickly, said regulators. Less than six months after the initial tip, the SEC brought an action against the perpetrator and recovered investor funds.

The SEC made its first payment to a whistleblower in August 2012. The award totaled  $50,000. In August and September of this year, the SEC awarded more than $25,000 to three tipsters who helped the government stop what it called a “sham hedge fund,” with total payments to the whistleblowers likely to continue and top $125,000.

'Snowden did it for all of us'

Deutsche Welle, 31 August 2013

The award ceremony for the German Whistleblower Prize in Berlin showed how differently Edward Snowden's leak of classified data can be interpreted. The state or the individual: where should the change begin?

"The power of a single person can change the world - that is the lesson taught to us by Edward J. Snowden," said Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who has led reporting for the British newspaper The Guardian on material leaked to him by Snowden.

Snowden, a child of a normal middle class family, made ​​a significant choice, said Greenwald. "This made an impression on many people around the world, and inspired them to stand up against lies and falsehoods," he said.

Greenwald spoke to guests at the
ceremony via a video conference

Greenwald is currently in South America, and spoke to those gathered at the ceremony via a video conference. Around 300 people, mainly older scientists, intellectuals and politicians, were intently listening. Greenwald's message was one of the highlights of the eighth Whistleblower Prize ceremony, awarded to Snowden in Berlin on Friday (30.08.2013).

Snowden, who has been granted asylum in Russia, was unable to attend the ceremony in person and was represented by an empty chair in front of the guests. He was honored by the Federation of German Scientists (VDW), the International Association Of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) and Transparency International for leaking information about US National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance of Internet and phone traffic as well as other classified data. Snowden worked as a contractor for the NSA.

The power of the individual

Internet activist Jacob Appelbaum spoke with Snowden before the event and accepted the award on his behalf. Speaking in front of the crowd, he said Snowden had asked him not to talk too much about "geopolitics."

"Instead, he asked me to speak about individuals and about the hope for change," said Appelbaum. He said everyone had the strength to stand up against corruption, war crimes and lies - every day and at any time. It wasn't so much about the topic of Internet freedom, but personal freedoms - spying on the Internet is commonplace, he said, something from which no one is immune. "That's why we need an honest discussion of whether and how much we want to spy on each other."

Change begins with a single voice

"He did away with the propaganda machine and did it for all of us," said Appelbaum. Snowden was described as a man who truly cared about the welfare of others, a man who had earlier asked Appelbaum first if he had slept well before asking whether everything was organized for the event. That was typical of Snowden.

Snowden was a contractor for the
NSA before leaking data to the press

Appelbaum then read a letter from Snowden, who thanked the organizations for the award before symbolically sharing it with "all the individuals and organizations in the countless countries all over the world who have overcome linguistic and geographical boundaries to come together and defend the public right to truth and the value of privacy."

It wasn't him, Snowden said, but newspapers which began to ask questions. It was politicians who wrote proposals for new Internet protection laws. And he then thanked all those who convinced their friends and family how important these things were, "because change starts with a single voice."

More transparency needed

Snowden's message to the world, according to Appelbaum, was that "governments must be held accountable for their decisions that shape our lives. Freedoms and the rights of individuals must be decided by governments in public, and not in darkness."

He said the path is a difficult one, but one that would lead us to a better world for future generations.

Appelbaum said that neither he nor Snowden were against the United States, but against corrupt forces in the current government. "As American citizens, we ask you here in Berlin for your solidarity and support," he said, adding that Germans especially with their difficult 20th century history could encourage people to overcome the fear that controls them and begin to change.

"You must talk about how the current affair scares you, how it's reminiscent of the time of the secret police in the GDR. And you can tell from personal experience what it means to live in dark times."

Call for Snowden's asylum in Germany

Some guests at the ceremony said
Germany should offer Snowden asylum

Edda Müller, the chair of Transparency International in Germany, also spoke at the event and challenged the German government over its lack of implementation of international anti-corruption measures. Müller said whistleblowers were vital, not just in Snowden's case but also to protect the economy and uncover corruption.

In her speech, renowned journalist Sonia Seymour Mikich called Snowden's revelation of the NSA affair historic. "No one will be able to say later that he heard nothing of the creeping erosion of democracy," she said. She added that it was shameful that Germany and other Western countries had not offered Snowden political asylum, a criticism echoed by IALANA head Otto Jäckel.