© Josh Sager – August
2012
The maintenance of a free press is necessary for the preservation
of a democratic society. Unless the public is made aware of the actions of its
government, there is no way for citizens to hold their government accountable. If
those in power are simply able to prevent the media from reporting on their bad
acts, the public will never know about these abuses, and those in power will never
be held accountable. In order to prevent the suppression of the press, the
United States has many protections in place for whistleblowers and reporters
who reveal misconduct by those who have been elected to serve the best interest
of society.
The United States has regularly criticized governments which
attempt to silence dissent through controlling the press. These countries,
usually dictatorships, will often kidnap, falsely imprison, and torture reporters
who attempt to challenge the propaganda by those in power. In such countries, the
reporters’ fear of being persecuted by those in power prevents most reporters from
doing anything but repeat the lies of the government. While the United States still
condemns such repression of the press in foreign governments, our government
has unfortunately begun to persecute those in press who reveal damaging
information about it.
In the past several years, the United States government has
waged a war against whistleblowers and reporters who have released damaging
information about the government. The whistleblower Private Bradley Manning and
the journalist Julian Assange have borne the brunt of this persecution and are
still being attacked to this day.
Bradley Manning and Julian Assange
Bradley Manning was a US Army Private who released a tremendous
number of documents to the press and to the site “Wikileaks”. While many of
these documents were benign, some of them included evidence of terrible
misconduct by the United States government. The more egregious things exposed
by these leaked documents included videos of attack choppers killing unarmed
civilians in Iraq (the “collateral murder” videos”) and communications discussing
the torture program of United States detainees. These files had been covered up
by the government, because of their damaging nature, and nobody knew about the
true extent of this misconduct. Upon releasing these documents, Private Manning
was detained and is currently being charged in front of a military tribunal.
At the time of his arrest in 2010, Private Manning was detained
in the brig at Quantico. For most of his pre-trial imprisonment, Manning was
held in solitary confinement, stripped of his clothing, and denied any contact
with the outside world; these conditions are classified by our government, as
well as civil rights groups, to be forms of “non-touch torture” that are banned
by international agreements. While nobody deserves to be treated in this
manner, the actions of the government are particularly egregious considering
the fact that Manning should easily be considered a whistleblower—his exposure
of government crimes classify him as a whistleblower—and the fact that Manning
was held in these conditions for months before even being tried. Currently,
Private Manning is charged with numerous serious charges, including “aiding the
enemy”; if convicted, he will be sentenced to life imprisonment without the
possibility of parole.
Julian Assange is an Australian born journalist who was one
of the founders of the site “Wikileaks”. Assange created Wikileaks in order to
facilitate the exposure of government misconduct and to act as a forum for people
to post documents which are leaked from governments across the world. While
many argue that Assange is not a journalist because he uses leaks rather than
official sources, these people are wrong. The leaks posted by Wikileaks show things
that official sources were not saying, and have been extremely revealing as to
the true workings of governments. Assange never broke the law because he simply
posted information which was given to him by his sources. Due to the nature of
his site, Assange has been the target of numerous attack campaigns.
The attack campaigns on Assange and Wikileaks have been
aggressive and have caused significant disruption to the sit and its founder.
The government utilized its contacts with several major
banks and online payment companies to put up a financial blockade of Wikileaks;
due to this blockade, many people were simply no longer allowed to donate their
own money to the site. This tactic has starved Wikileaks and has caused them to
operate primarily on reserve funds (gathered before the blockade).
Several individuals connected to Wikileaks have been harassed,
searched, and had property taken simply due to their connection with Assange.
Jacob Appelbaum, a spokesperson for Wikileaks, had his cell phone and laptop
seized while going through customs; these devices were never returned to Mr.
Appelbaum, and no search warrant was ever produced to justify the government’s
action. An association with a journalistic organization which exposes
government lies does not justify the government to violate an individual’s
constitutional rights.
The most recent, and most dangerous, example of United
States government harassment of Wikileaks and Assange is the case against
Julian Assange. Assange has been accused of sexual misconduct by a woman in Sweden
and the Swedish authorities have asked for Assange to be extradited (he is
currently living in England) for questioning. While the case of sexual misconduct
has yet to be adjudicated, many people believe that it is simply being used as
a pretext to send Assange to the USA for detainment and torture. Assange agreed
to talk to Swedish authorities in England or to go back to Sweden to face
charges, but only if the government of Sweden guaranteed that they would not extradite
him to the USA. As Sweden refused to agree to this, and has a history of
extraditing people to the USA, it is a logical conclusion that they planned to
extradite Assange to the USA. If extradited to the USA, Assange would likely
find himself subject to long-term detainment and solitary confinement, if not
worse treatment. Fortunately, Assange has been granted asylum by Ecuador, and it
appears unlikely that he will be sent to the United States any time soon.
Ramifications
The persecution of whistleblowers and journalists who report
on government crimes tells us one very simple, but very troubling thing: the
United States may claim to support a free press but, in practice, has become
willing to turn a blind eye as our government attacks those who practice true
journalism.
Revealing the misconduct of our government is not an act of treachery,
nor is it an attack on the United States—it is a public service and a vital component
of our democracy. If the government can simply classify all of its illegal acts
and criminalize those who reveal these acts, then there can be no accountability.
Those who reveal the wrongdoings of our government, even at great personal risk,
should be hailed as heroes and protected from consequences; without these
people, our government would continue to commit crimes in our names, and we
would never know about it.
Many will claim that leaks are dangerous and should be
prosecuted, but these people are only half right. A whistleblower is a person
who releases information on the wrongdoings or illegal conduct of the government
(or a corporation) and releases it in order promote accountability; in order
for somebody to be a whistleblower, the information released must reveal
wrongdoing, and the leaker may not sell this information for personal profit. If a person leaks top secret information that
poses a danger to the public and has no accountability or transparency value
(ex. leaking nuclear missile codes), they are not a whistleblower. Similarly,
if a leaker sells their information to a corporation or a foreign country, they
are a spy, not a whistleblower.
Bradley Manning and Julian Assange released information
revealing wrongdoings which were covered-up by the United States government. Rather
than sell this information (which would have been extremely profitable),
Assange, Manning and the rest of the people working with Wikileaks, put the
information out for the public to access. These people are the textbook definitions
of whistleblowers (under the Whistleblower Protection Act) and any attack on
them is a violation of the law.
With the United States’ extra-legal attacks upon journalists
and whistleblowers, what high ground can we stand upon while criticizing Iran
or China when they repress their media? The United States government has
detained without trial, tortured, and taken the property of those who have
revealed its wrongdoings. In addition to what we have already done, some
politicians have claimed that Assange should be classified as an “enemy
combatant” and should simply rendition or assassinate him without any legal proceedings.
What could other countries, even repressive regimes, do to top what the United
States has done (or plans to do) to our own journalists.
To conclude, let me leave you with these two questions?
- What does it say about us, as a country, when the perpetrators of torture and the killers of civilians have yet to see the inside of a jail cell, while those who revealed these crimes are facing life in prison (and probably solitary confinement)?
- If the government is committing crimes in our names, would you rather live in ignorance or try to change things? When revealing information about government crimes is tantamount to suicide, few people will be brave enough to speak up and let you know about the misdeeds of your government.
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