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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Nation’s Leading Journalists: Leak Investigations Chilling Our Reporting, Hurting Public’s Right-To-Know
This morning on CBS Face the Nation, President and CEO of the Associated Press Gary Pruitt called the Justice Department’s seizure of AP’s call records “unconstitutional” and said it has already had a chilling effect on newsgathering. The chilling effect may end up being the lasting effect of this scandal: …
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Wanted: Two Court Stenographers for the Bradley Manning Trial
Dates: approximately June 3, 2013 until approximately September 23, 2013 (subject to change) The Freedom of the Press Foundation is seeking two court reporters who can provide dedicated, daily coverage of the Bradley Manning court martial in Fort Meade Maryland. The position will require individuals to travel to the military …
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New Yorker Launches New Whistleblower Submission System, With Code Written by the Late Aaron Swartz
In an important announcement, the New Yorker has launched ‘Strongbox,’ a whistleblower submission system that aims to allow for anonymous leakers to digitally hand off important information to journalists. The underlying code, called 'Dead-Drop,' is an open-source project and was written by Internet pioneer and legendary coder Aaron Swartz, before …
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Justice Department Investigation of AP Part of Larger Pattern to Intimidate Sources and Reporters
As part of a new leak investigation, the Justice Department has secretly obtained the call records for twenty phone lines owned by the Assocated Press (AP), which could put sources for as many as one hundred reporters at risk. The AP called the move a "massive and unprecedented intrusion," saying …
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Freedom of the Press Foundation Crowd-Funding A Court Reporter To Transcribe Bradley Manning’s Trial
Campaign will support a professional stenographer to produce transcripts and provide them to the public and press For immediate release San Francisco, CA – May 9, 2013 – Freedom of the Press Foundation is proud to announce a new fundraising campaign to hire a professional court stenographer to produce transcripts …
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New Book Compares the Pentagon Papers to WikiLeaks, Calls for Obama to End Crackdown on Whistleblowers
This week, James Goodale, former general counsel of the New York Times, is out with a new book called “Fighting for the Press,” which chronicles his role in convincing the New York Times to publish the Pentagon Papers, and then convincing the Supreme Court the Times was protected by …
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The Freedom of Information Act: The Most Powerful Tool in My Reporting Arsenal
Jason Leopold is Truthout’s lead investigative reporter. Freedom of the Press Foundation is crowd-funding in support of his FOIA work and on-the-scenes reporting at the Guantanamo Bay trials. You can fund his work here. A couple of years ago, a friend handed me about 500 pages of documents he …
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Correcting the Error-Riddled Wall Street Journal Column on WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, and Press Freedom
Since the audio of whistleblower Bradley Manning's statement to the court leaked last week, it's becoming clear how much of a threat the government's "aiding the enemy" charge against Manning threatens all whistleblowers. Famed law professor Yochai Benkler and First Amendment scholar Floyd Abrams wrote an op-ed in the …
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Bradley Manning's Voice Now Available on The Internet Archive and The Pirate Bay
Yesterday Freedom of the Press Foundation published a full, previously unreleased audio recording of Bradley Manning's speech to the military court about his motivations for leaking the Apache helicopter video, Afghanistan and Iraq Wars Logs, and the State Department Diplomatic Cables to WikiLeaks. In this recording he says in his …
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Help Spread Bradley Manning's Words Across the Internet
Today Freedom of the Press Foundation released an audio recording of Bradley Manning's statement to the military court. By releasing this audio recording, we wish to make sure that the voice of this generation's most prolific whistleblower can be heard—literally—by the world. Please spread his words as far as you …
