Google has won the 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. Google has won this award controversially because award’s statutes said that it can be granted to a person working as a team or institution. Asturias award come with cash prize of 50,000 euros
The decision, worth 50,000 € to Google, has been criticised by many, such as the President of the Madrid Press Association, Fernando González Urbaneja, who considered the choice of Google had a ‘hollywood air’, although he did not deny that the search engine was an important phenomenon. The decision has also been criticised by others who point out that the search engine has legal cases open with several media regarding allegations of breaking intellectual property rights. It also allegedly acted in favour of censorship in China two years ago.
Another beaten candidate this year was the British naturist David Attenborough.
