Bengali journo pips Snowden
Friday, 21 March 2014
Bengali journalist from India Shubhranshu Choudhary has edged out whistleblower Edward Snowden to win the 2014 Google Digital Activism Award. The former BBC producer, whose family hails from what is now Bangladesh, has been honoured by this award because he conceptualised and created CGNet Swara (Voice of Chhattisgarh), a mobile-phone service that allows citizens to post and listen to local reports in their local language using basic mobile phones. This has helped tribal people in India’s Chattisgarh to carry their voices and woes beyond their villages. The Google Digital Activism Award is a part of the Index Freedom of Expression Awards, that honours achievers in four different categories: advocacy, arts, digital activism and journalism. Other nominees for the 2014 Google Digital Activism Award were whistleblower Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor who leaked thousands of documents related to US government surveillance; TAILS operating system, an open-source encryption tool that helps protect free online communication between journalists and sources; and Free Weibo, an uncensored version of Chian's largest social network SinaWeibo, according to bdnews24.com.