The two foremost news organizations behind reports about the National Security Agency's cybersurveillance programs have won the top award for journalism. On Monday, The Washington Post and the U.S. branch of The Guardian were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism, for their reports based on ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaked documents. 

The Pulitzer board's controversial decision marks the first time the Public Service award has gone to reportage on cyberspace, and has been seen as both a vindication of Edward Snowden's actions and a prize for "Snowden and his accomplices." Reporters of the NSA revelations, Glenn Greenwald, Lauren Poitras, and Barton Gellman, have also recently won the George Polk Award, another prize for journalistic excellence.

The Pulitzer Prize, awarded by Columbia University, which also runs one of the foremost journalism schools in the country, was awarded to the Washington Post "for its revelation of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, marked by authoritative and insightful reports that helped the public understand how the disclosures fit into the larger framework of national security," according to the Pulitzer site.

For the Guardian US, the same Pulitzer for Public Service was awarded for the same revelations of secret NSA surveillance, as well as for "helping through aggressive reporting to spark a debate about the relationship between the government and the public over issues of security and privacy."

Edward Snowden, who now lives in Russia on temporary asylum, due to the U.S.'s intent to prosecute him for exposing state secrets, is the controversial NSA employee who provided the Guardian, and then the Washington Post and ProPublica, with top-secret NSA documents detailing many of the agency's surveillance programs, both controversial and not-so-controversial.

Snowden said in a statement that the Pulitzer award was "vindication for everyone who believes that the public has a role in government," according to CNN. "We owe it to the efforts of the brave reporters and their colleagues who kept working in the face of extraordinary intimidation, including the forced destruction of journalistic materials, the inappropriate use of terrorism laws, and so many other means of pressure to get them to stop what the world now recognizes was a work of vital public importance." 

By forced destruction of journalistic materials, Snowden is referring to the forced destruction of the Guardian's media drives on which the original NSA files were located. And by "inappropriate use of terrorism laws," Snowden is referring to former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald's partner David Miranda, who last year was detained at London's Heathrow Airport, under the U.K.'s Terrorism Act as a potential terrorist threat, for the maximum amount of time allowed by law -- his personal possessions confiscated.

Guardian Editor in Chief Alan Rusbridger included Snowden in his statement reacting to the Pulitzer Prize announcement. "We are particularly grateful for our colleagues across the world who supported the Guardian in circumstances which threatened to stifle our reporting," said Rusbridger, according to Reuters. "And we share this honor, not only with our colleagues at The Washington Post, but also with Edward Snowden, who risked so much in the cause of the public service which has today been acknowledged by the award of this prestigious prize."

Editor of The Washington Post Marty Baron told his newsroom that without Snowden, "There would have been no public debate about the proper balance between privacy and national security. As even the President has acknowledged this is a conversation we need to have." Responding to pressure from the NSA reports, President Obama announced changes to the NSA's metadata collection program earlier this year.