It’s the kind of public redemption that does not happen nearly enough, but one that may become more commonplace as respect and admiration for whistleblowers continue to grow.

Gjorgji Lazarevski and Zvonko Kostovski, the former Macedonian intelligence officials who exposed mass-scale illegal surveillance of political opponents and journalists, have received the country’s highest human rights award. Standing and smiling before the National Assembly in Skopje, Lazarevski and Kostovski accepted the Meto Jovanovski Award for Human Rights on December 10, coinciding with the UN’s Human Rights Day.

Known as “The Edward Snowdens of Macedonia,” Lazarevski and Kostovski are among the very few whistleblowers whose disclosures led directly to the ousting of a national leader and the formation of a new government.

Their 2015 revelation that then-Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski was spying on an estimated 20,000 people forced Gruevski to resign a year later. The explosive case led to the indictment of 94 people and seven companies, and the conviction and sentencing of several high-ranking officials including Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska and spy chief Sasho Mijalkov. Though also sentenced to prison, Gruevski managed to escape the country and obtain asylum in Hungary from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

As retribution, Lazarevski and Kostovski were jailed for 11 and 15 months, respectively, before being freed. Following an international campaign by anti-corruption activists, they were...

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