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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News Organizations Routinely Expose Journalists Through Hostnames and IP Addresses
Journalists doing investigations online are often unknowingly giving away their identity to the very people they’re investigating. And the issue illustrates why journalists should regularly be using the Tor Browser or a Virtual Private Network (VPN) when working on any story—whether it's about national security or not. Every internet …
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Lethal Injection Secrecy, Private Prison Project, and More
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Lethal Injection Secrecy: Over at Pacific Standard, the always-readable Ted Scheinman discusses the veil of secrecy surrounding the drug cocktails being used in lethal injections. As …
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How the Recent Tails Operating System Vulnerability Affects Journalists and SecureDrop
On Wednesday afternoon, vulnerability and exploit research firm Exodus Intelligence disclosed a security vulnerability that would allow an attacker to deanonymize a user of Tails, the operating system that many journalists rely on to communicate securely with sources and that we have written about before. Tails is also integral …
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Cass Sunstein and the Status Quo
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Cass Sunstein: Three cheers for the status quo Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein has an op-ed in Bloomberg View arguing against the FOIA reform bill introduced …
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It's Time to End the Justice Dept's Criminal Investigation Into WikiLeaks
Freedom of the Press Foundation, along with dozens of other press freedom and human rights organizations, are calling upon the U.S. Justice Department today to officially close the criminal investigation into WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange for publishing information in the public interest. (See the full letter to Attorney …
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POGO Launches SecureDrop Amidst Subpoena Controversy Over VA Whistleblower Records
Today, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), the respected DC-based government watchdog organization, launched its own version of SecureDrop, our open-source whistleblower submission system. This installation takes on a special and urgent significance, as POGO has recently been subpoenaed for information on whistleblowers that have contacted them about …
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You Can Strengthen Anonymity, Privacy and Free Speech on the Internet by Running a Tor Relay
We're partnering with EFF, Tor Project, and Free Software Foundation on the Tor Challenge, a clarion call for people all over the world to support the Tor anonymity network in the most crucial way possible: by running relays. Relays are the fundamental building blocks of Tor; …
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Supreme Court Rejects Reporter's Privilege Case, As NYT Reporter Faces Jail for Protecting His Source
The Supreme Court today rejected New York Times reporter James Risen's appeal of a 4th Circuit decision that ruled the government can compel him to reveal his source under oath. The case, one of the most important for reporter's privilege in decades, means that Risen has exhausted his appeals …
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Prioritizing Personalities Over a Free Press
One of the most fascinating aspects of Glenn Greenwald’s journalism is the way it provokes various people who think of themselves as journalists to reveal their actual priorities. I wrote about this at length last week in a response to Michael Kinsley’s non-review review of Greenwald’s new book, No Place …
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Motive, Means, and Opportunity: Why NSA Secrecy Should Worry Us All
Even if you haven’t studied criminal law, you’ll immediately understand the concept of motive, means, and opportunity. Motive is you wanted to kill the victim. Means is you were holding a loaded gun. Opportunity is the victim was standing right in front of you. Without all three, you can’t have …
