Snowden anniversary a reminder of the need to protect whistleblowers and journalists
AP Photo/George Brich
Whistleblowers are essential to a free and unfettered press.
Whistleblowers play a critical role in informing the public and holding the government to account.
Sources who act out of conscience to leak information to the press further our democracy. Whistleblowers like Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden, have exposed some of our government’s gravest abuses.
Unfortunately, whistleblowers are often prosecuted and jailed. That’s wrong. Whistleblowers and the journalists they work with should be celebrated, not punished.
Featured Items
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Laura Poitras' Snowden documentary 'Citizenfour' opens nationwide this weekend
Director Laura Poitras' new documentary about Edward Snowden and the NSA, entitled CITIZENFOUR, opens in theaters across the United States tomorrow. There are also sneak peek screenings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Washington DC tonight. You can see where the film is playing near you this …
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Cognitive Dissonance about the FBI and NSA at 60 Minutes
60 Minutes, which has been harshly criticized for running puff pieces for the NSA and FBI recently, is at it again. Last night, they ran two unrelated yet completely conflicting segments—one focusing on FBI Director Jim Comey, and the other on New York Times reporter James Risen—and the cognitive …
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Here's why you should go see Laura Poitras' new Snowden documentary 'Citizenfour'
Director Laura Poitras’ highly anticipated new documentary on Edward Snowden and the NSA, entitled Citizenfour, debuted at the New York Film Festival over the weekend. The film is an extraordinary look inside the mind and motivations of whistleblowers, and enthrallingly captures how the NSA disclosures transformed the world’s view …
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Why the court decision to release the Guantanamo force-feeding videos is so important
Okay, this is huge: a federal judge has ordered the government to release videos of Guantanamo force-feedings. Expect the footage to be sickening to watch.Why is this so important? Because, as the saying goes, if the slaughterhouses of the world were made of glass, we'd all be vegetarians. …
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Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on the similarities between Vietnam and the war against ISIS
The following article by Barbara Koeppel was originally published at Consortiumnews.com. At a recent talk at the National Press Club in Washington DC, Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers in 1971, says he believes there’s not one person in the Pentagon who would agree that President Obama can …
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Eric Holder was the worst Attorney General for the press in a generation. We deserve better.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced he would resign yesterday, after serving as the nation’s top law enforcement official since President Obama came into office in 2009. Holder will leave behind a complex and hotly debated legacy at the Justice Department on many issues, but one thing is clear: he …
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Dangerous Law In Australia Could Criminalize Basic Reporting and Gut Internet Freedom
Earlier today, the Australian Senate passed a sweeping new ‘anti-terror’ law that will allow the Australian government to conduct mass surveillance on all of its citizens, will make whistleblowing on intelligence issues a crime, and threatens to criminalize basic reporting. The bill is an enormous threat to press freedom, free …
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This Week in Transparency: AP counts the ways Obama admin blocks info
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. The most transparent administration in history, an ongoing series At a three-day convention of the American Society of News Editors, the Associated Press Media Editors and the Associated …
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More Than a Dozen Pulitzer Winners Call on the Justice Dept to End its Pursuit of James Risen
UPDATE: The list has increased to twenty Pulitzer winners after adding statements from David Rohde, Michael LaForgia and Will Hobson, David Cay Johnston, Eric Lichtblau, and Dan Fagin. -- Today, fourteen Pulitzer Prize winners have issued statements in support of journalist James Risen and in protest of the Justice Department's …
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This Week in Transparency: Runaway Classification and Bill Nye the Science Guy
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Runaway classification: Rep. Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.) and Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) introduced a bill to reign in classification, the Washington Post reports: "The measure would request …
