Edward Snowden to broadcast Channel 4's alternative Christmas Day message
Source: Guardian UK
Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who prompted a worldwide debate when he leaked a cache of top secret documents about US and UK spying, has recorded a Christmas Day television message in which he calls for an end to the mass surveillance revealed by his disclosures.
The short film was recorded for Channel 4, which has 20-year history of providing unusual but relevant figures as an alternative to the Queen's Christmas message shown by other UK broadcasters. It will be Snowden's first television appearance since arriving in Moscow.
The address, to be broadcast at 4.15pm on Christmas Day, was filmed in Russia – where Snowden is living after being granted temporary asylum – by Laura Poitras, a film-maker who has closely collaborated with him on the NSA stories.
In excerpts from the address released by Channel 4, Snowden says George Orwell "warned us of the danger of this kind of information" in his dystopian novel, 1984.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/24/edward-snowden-channel-4-christmas-day-message
The Queen's Christmas speech is about as much a part of Christmas as turkey and mulled wine.
But over the last 20 years, Channel 4 have rivaled the monarch with their own annual Alternative Christmas Message.
The tradition began in 1993, when the channel invited controversial English writer Quentin Crisp to give his own speech to the nation.
Since then, we've seen comedians, politicians, cartoon characters and everyone in between offered the chance to tell their story of the year that was.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/alternative-christmas-message-watch-8-2941283
= new reply since forum marked as read
At one point, Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst, recited from memory in Russian an Alexander Pushkin poem, “The Prisoner,” which he had learned back in his days spying on the Soviet Union. “We have nothing to lose except everything, so let us go ahead,” said Jesselyn Radack, a former Justice Department attorney, quoting Albert Camus’s warning at the dawn of the nuclear age. Another attendee, the whistle-blowing FBI agent Coleen Rowley, compared Snowden to Benjamin Franklin, who as postmaster general in 1773 helped leak letters from American officials who were secretly collaborating with British authorities.
http://poy.time.com/2013/12/11/runner-up-edward-snowden-the-dark-prophet/
I've always wanted to say that, and your OP seems to be a perfect opportunity.
