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.
If alleged whistleblower Terry Albury did what he is accused of, journalists should consider him a hero.
Three months into 2018, the most under the radar threat to press freedom has shown itself to be not arrests or attacks on journalists, but rather subpoenas to produce documents or attempt to force journalists to testify about their sources.
“Ag-gag” laws are intended to protect the animal agriculture industry from public scrutiny by attempting to criminalize journalists and whistleblowers who expose its operating conditions.
Now's the time to call your member of Congress and oppose warrantless spying on Americans.
Since 2012, Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) has accepted donations on behalf of WikiLeaks readers after Visa, Mastercard and PayPal instituted an extra-legal financial blockade of WikiLeaks in 2011 and 2012. When WikiLeaks started publishing classified State Department cables in conjunction with the New York Times and other papers …
An attack on leakers and whistleblowers is an attack on journalism itself.
Prosecuting sources is a direct threat to press freedom.
The Espionage Act is a draconian statute used to stifle press freedom for decades.
The Espionage Act is used to prosecute whistleblowers and threaten journalists. This is its history.
The Trump administration charged a news outlet's source under the draconian Espionage Act this week. Edward Snowden responds.