Guardian Editor Says Paper Published Only 1% of Snowden NSA Leaks

Defends paper's role in publishing Edward Snowden leaks

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Alan Rusbridger, the Editor of The Guardian newspaper, arrives at Portcullis House to face questions from the Home Affairs Committee on Dec. 3, 2013 in London.

The Guardian has published only one percent of the leaked documents it received from former NSA contractor and famed leaker Edward Snowden, the newspaper’s editor said Tuesday.

Alan Rusbridger, appearing before British Parliament, said the newspaper had not put lives at risk or harmed national security by publishing the leaked documents, the Associated Press reports. Rusbridger said Snowden leaked a total of about 58,000 files, the vast majority of which the paper has not, and will not, publish.

“I would not expect us to be publishing a huge amount more,” he said.

Rusbridger defended the Guardian’s role in publishing the leaked documents, which have spurred a fierce international debate about surveillance and espionage between countries, and he condemned what he termed “intimidation” against the newspaper by the UK government, saying that “to the rest of the world, it appears that press freedom itself is under attack in Britain.”

[AP]