Snowden a hero not a villain to many

Eight months after the first of Edward Snowden's revelations, it is shocking to hear some people in the United States continuing to lambaste him for going to China and Russia.

They say this is because the two countries have questionable records of human rights and freedom of expression. They probably think that Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, should be stupid enough to go to Britain, where the US authorities could easily extradite him and throw him into prison, just like they did to whistleblower Chelsea Manning, a US soldier who leaked information to WikiLeaks and is now serving 35 years behind bars.

The other example is WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Also a whistleblower, Assange has been forced to live in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012 because the British authorities want to arrest him on a sexual assault charge at the request of the Swedish authorities.