Update below.

http://vimeo.com/85155619

Whether German television channel ARD intentionally hid its interview with NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden Sunday night is not clear. That it was immediately taken off its media center so that interested viewers who had missed the broadcast could not watch it afterwards is quite conspicuous. The in principle harmless interview was later leaked by LiveLeak. ARD (a consortium of the public-law broadcasting institutions in Germany) has a mandate to inform, not to hide in deference of Transatlantic sensitivities. That phone calls and internet activities of 80 millions Germans (well, much less given the fact that toddlers do not do phone calls yet and  and pensioners have still an aversion to go online) constantly surveilled by NSA’s mass surveillance is the scandal, not Chancellor Angela Merkel’s tapped mobile phone.

“There is no question that the U.S. is engaged in economical spying,” Snowden claimed mentioning German company Siemens. That should have been substantiated by an inquiring interviewer. In general, there was not very much new in the interview, maybe except that Snowden claimed that he had applied for asylum not only in Germany or France but in the UK as well. Maybe that was a glitch but the interviewer did not dig deeper.

Update 31 January 2014. Vimeo had to delete the video and gave the following explanation:

Sorry, “Edward Snowden’s First Television Interview (ARD/Germany)” was deleted at 3:41:53 Fri Jan 31, 2014.

Vimeo has removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by NDR claiming that this material is infringing: Edward Snowden’s First Television Interview (ARD/Germany).

You may still see it on the LiveLeak site here.