How The Guardian has become the go-to newspaper for whistleblowers

For a journalist, there is nothing more satisfying than a scoop that sets the news agenda for days on end and simultaneously leaves the opposition racing to catch up.

On Monday morning, Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, sent out a herogram to all his staff praising them for breaking the story of Edward Snowden. The 29-year-old is a former technical assistant for the CIA and, for the last four years, had been working at the National Security Agency.

In all that time, he was unknown; today, after being behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA's history, The Guardian has made him a household name around the world. Interviewed over a number of days by Glenn Greenwald, the paper's chief US correspondent, Snowden said he was leaving behind a stable career in Hawaii, a solid annual income, his girlfriend and the family he loves for his beliefs.

"I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," he told the paper.

It comes as little surprise that Snowden elected to speak with The Guardian, which has built a reputation that is the envy of Fleet Street and every other media organisation with a claim to be on top of the news, as the go-to paper for whistleblowers who can longer stomach what they are being asked to do in the name of national security or the good of the company.