Ewen MacAskill (born 1951)Bryan Burrough, Sarah Ellison and Suzanna Andrew
"The Snowden Saga: A Shadowland of Secrets and Light"
''Vanity Fair'', May 2014 is a Scottish journalist. He worked for 22 years on ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', ending his career in September 2018 as the newspaper's defence and intelligence correspondent. MacAskill was involved in preparing the publication disclosures from

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...

of the activities of the American

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(NSA).

Career

MacAskill was a political editor for ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' for six years (1990–96) before becoming chief political correspondent for ''The Guardian''. In 2007, he was named Washington DC bureau chief. While based in the United States, he was involved in preparing the

revelations concerning the NSA for publication liaising with Snowden and his contact,

Glenn Greenwald Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author, and former lawyer. In 1996, Greenwald founded a law firm concentrating on First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment litigation. He began blo ...

, who had brought the story to the attention of then ''GuardianUS'' editor Janine Gibson. As a result of his reporting on Global surveillance disclosures, he was named co-recipient of the 2013 George Polk Award. The same reporting also contributed to the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service awarded jointly to ''The Guardian'' and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' in April 2014. MacAskill's retirement from The Guardian was announced on 22 September 2018. MacAskill is portrayed by British actor Tom Wilkinson in the

biopic '' Snowden'', directed by

Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born ) is an American filmmaker. Stone is an acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War and American politics to musical film, musical Biographical film, biopics and Crime film, crime dramas. He has ...

and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Snowden.

References

Living people Scottish male journalists George Polk Award recipients Place of birth missing (living people) Scottish political journalists 1951 births Alumni of the University of Glasgow {{UK-journalist-stub