Guardian Wins Newspaper Of The Year At British Press Awards

Guardian Wins Newspaper Of The Year

The Guardian was named "Newspaper of the Year" at the 2014 British Press Awards, and picked up several other awards, the newspaper announced Tuesday.

The Guardian was behind one of the biggest stories in 2013 when it published confidential National Security Agency surveillance documents, provided to the newspaper by Edward Snowden. The Snowden leaks sparked weeks of reports about the massive scope of the NSA's surveillance capabilities, the majority of those reports coming from the Guardian.

The newspaper was praised by judges for breaking "a story of global significance that went to the heart of the debate on press freedom."

"The job of a newspaper is to speak truth to power and the past year has seen the Guardian do this with will and verve," the committee said.

Former Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald will also receive the University of Georgia's McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage. Greenwald was responsible for reporting, via Snowden, that the NSA was collecting the phone records of millions of Americans. He was also the recipient of the George Polk Award for his reporting on national security.

Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger toasted his staff following the ceremony and gave special thanks to ProPublica and the New York Times for collaborating to report the leaked documents. He also thanked Edward Snowden for "his decision to become a whistleblower" as well as former deputy editor Georgina Henry, who died in February.

Other honors awarded to the Guardian included "Young Journalist of the Year," "News Reporter of the Year" and the "Digital Award" for website of the year.

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