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
-
Don’t get lost in the Trump raid debates. The oft-abused Espionage Act is in dire need of reform
Misguided debates around the Espionage Act have led to a flood of misinformation about what the often-abused law actually does in practice. Left unchecked, it will have a lasting effect on important reform efforts.
-
Congress has a historic chance to protect journalists and whistleblowers in this year’s defense authorization bill
For years, DOJ has abused the Espionage Act against whistleblowers and journalists. A new bill could potentially change that.
-
Supreme Court entrenches ‘state secrets’ privilege, dealing a blow to accountability
The Supreme Court upheld and potentially expanded its pernicious “state secrets” privilege in two opinions late last week relating to expansive government surveillance and anti-terrorism programs.
-
Government secrecy kills
Even the Director of National Intelligence admits the U.S. secrecy system is horribly broken.
-
Support the NSO Group whistleblower, and others like him
Journalists have been working incredibly hard to expose the spyware company and its authoritarian users. But let's not forget about the whistleblowers.
-
Investigate Customs and Border Protection for illicit investigations of journalists
New reporting into a government operation codenamed "Operation Whistle Pig" describes a shocking level of invasion into the personal and private lives of journalists. In blockbuster reporting, Yahoo News describes the actions of the Counter Network Division, a secretive unit of U.S. Customs and Border Protection that works with law enforcement and the intelligence community.
-
As lawmakers debate drone tragedy, a key whistleblower remains behind bars
A brave whistleblower served as a source to stories that shaped the public understanding of the otherwise secret U.S. drone program. He's serving a prison sentence as lawmakers reckon with the very information he revealed.
-
There’s no right time for Apple’s privacy-invading tech features
Apple announced Friday that it would postpone its planned roll-out of user device surveillance technology that had come under heavy fire from the privacy and civil liberties community. It should drop the plans entirely.
-
Apple’s device surveillance plan is a threat to user privacy — and press freedom
The backlash from privacy and human rights advocates to Apple's new plan this month for scanning photos on user devices to detect known child sexual abuse images has been loud and nearly unanimous. The tech raises press freedom problems, too.
-
Fifty years ago today, Senator Mike Gravel read the Pentagon Papers into the official record. More lawmakers should follow his lead.
While the New York Times and the Washington Post were tied up in the Supreme Court over whether they could report on the leaked Pentagon Papers, Senator Mike Gravel took matters into his own hands.
