NSA leaker Edward Snowden to address Britain in Christmas program

LONDON – Britain’s Channel 4 says National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden will speak directly to Britain in its annual “Alternative Christmas Message,” a slot typically reserved for provocative or offbeat addresses.

The television channel said Tuesday that the appearance would be Snowden’s first television broadcast since he arrived in Moscow, where he has been granted temporary asylum following his exposure of the NSA’s secret domestic surveillance apparatus. Snowden’s revelations have prompted a global debate over the limits of surveillance and the value of privacy.

The queen delivers Britain’s “Royal Christmas Message,” but Channel 4 has used its parody version to give a platform to people as diverse as Iran’s then-President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in 2008, and fictional characters including Ali G. and Marge Simpson in 1999 and 2004 respectively.