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The Guardian Edward Snowden

Guardian received just 13 critical emails over Snowden coverage while seven offered whistleblower money and place to stay

By Angela Haggerty, Reporter

September 24, 2013 | 3 min read

The Guardian received just 13 emails criticising the title’s coverage of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s leaks about the National Security Agency (NSA) and surveillance capabilities on citizens.

Comments: The Guardian readers' office received 108 emails

According to a blog by the Guardian’s readers’ editor, Chris Elliot, 48 emails were received in support of the Guardian’s work on the story while seven email even requested to offer help to Snowden by way of money, visas or places to stay.

Another 27 emails offered further information and 13 emails were received with concerns about how people were affected by the surveillance.

“More than 300 articles have been published since the first, on 6 June 2013, which revealed that a top-secret court had ordered a US telephone company, Verizon, to hand over data on millions of calls,” wrote Elliot.

“However, since then, the readers' editor's office has received only 108 emails in relation to the series, of which just 13 were critical. Of the 13, only two specifically criticised the Guardian for publishing the disclosures, which is unusual for such a high-profile story.”

Elliot went on to discuss a range of issues the paper had dealt with in the aftermath of the story, including the detention of journalist Glenn Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda, and suggested that newspaper rivalry in the UK and “a nudge from the DA-notice committee” could partly explain the lack of comment from politicians on the story and the reluctance of other titles to pursue it.

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger told The Drum that the paper’s breaking of the story hadn’t prevented US titles from covering it.

“I think the fact that the Guardian has broken it in America has been a surprise to some American news organisations but it hasn’t put them off covering it,” he said.

The Guardian Edward Snowden

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