LONDON’S Green Euro-MP Jean Lambert has called on the UK to offer US whistle-blower Edward Snowden a home and protection from prosecution ahead of World Press Freedom Day, which is marked tomorrow (May 3rd).<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cThe Government keeps saying we need to defend whistle-blowers \u2013 the question is, how brave is it on this issue?<\/p>\n
\u201cEdward Snowden, and the journalists on both sides of the Atlantic who reported his revelations, have made a significant personal sacrifice to expose threats to our freedom \u2013 and now we should defend theirs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Greens said in the European Parliament: Edward Snowden deserves a prize, not prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UN has observed that journalists and whistle-blowers often report on the very corruption which harms development and poverty-reduction most. What example do we set if we don’t protect those who blow the whistle on our own Government?<\/p>\n
Ms Lambert made her comments ahead of World Press Freedom Day, which this year celebrates the role of a free press in development \u2013 and laments the fact that at least 600 journalists have been killed worldwide in the last decade alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly when journalists are at liberty to monitor, investigate and criticize policies and actions can good governance exist,\u201d Ms Lambert added.<\/p>\n
Ms Lambert, who will mark Word Press Freedom Day by taking action to raise awareness of the issue outside the London offices of the UK’s Guardian newspaper, said:\u201cWe need a responsible, free press, independent of government interference and persecution, to help deliver a fairer, more free and more sustainable world.<\/p>\n