Introduction
When people think of Freedom of Speech they usually believe that they have the ability to say anything positive or negative without consequences, but this isn't true and most likely never will be. Whistleblowing is one of the exceptions not fully protected by the First Amendment. The National Whistleblower Center gives a simple definition: "...a whistleblower is someone who reports waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, or dangers to public health and safety to someone who is in the position to rectify the wrongdoing." Intuitively, this seems like the right and natural thing to do, so why is it considered wrong and punishable by governments and institutions around the world?
WikiLeaks & Murder
Julian Assange is one of the most well-known whistleblowers of our time. He is an Australian programmer who created the journalistic website WikiLeaks in the year 2006. This website is dedicated to sharing documents (including videos and pictures) of which whistleblowers want to reach the public eye. Since its creation, it has released millions of documents to the world covering various topics, but I will focus on documents released in 2010.
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| Julian Assange |
That year WikiLeaks published nearly 500,000 documents previously kept secret after receiving them from the US Army intelligence analyst and whistleblower Chelsea Manning (who at the time was named Bradley Manning). These documents revealed disturbing details about US involvement in the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars. Videos of American soldiers hunting down and killing innocent people were also released and titled "Collateral Murder" (the link to the videos are here; TW: death, war, language). Following the release of this information both Assange and Manning were arrested; Manning for espionage and theft, and Assange first for unrelated charges then under a provisional warrant.
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| Chelsea Manning |
At first, Assange was on house arrest in Norfolk until 2012 when he sought asylum in the Ecuadoran embassy in London. He stayed there until UK authorities forcefully removed him from the establishment and arrested him mid-2019 (the whole event was broadcasted on live TV). Charges are still being pressed, and Assange is now being held in Her majesty's Prison Belmarsh as he awaits trial. Manning ended up spending over 7 years in jail, and her fight with the courts continued into 2020. The US especially has been pursuing the aforementioned whistleblowers supposedly for threatening national security, but that doesn't seem to be the only reason.
"Collateral Murder"
If you did watch the video mentioned above, you know the horrendous acts committed by the soldiers present. If you did not watch it, I don't blame you (it was very painful for me to watch), so I will explain what happened.
In short, the video shows US military forces honing in on a group of unarmed people in Baghdad (which included two Reuters journalists: Saeed Chmagh & Namir Noor-Eldeen) and killing them using heavy fire from a helicopter. However, what makes the situation unfavorable is the fact that the military kept how the two journalists died secret until they were demanded for answers by Reuters. They also claimed that the actions took place in accordance with the US Rules of Engagement, but in the video nobody was attacking or partaking in especially suspicious activities.
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| Still from video showing the group walking before the attack. |
The soldiers wrongfully identify one of the journalist's camera as a weapon (specifically an AK-47) which to me doesn't make sense. Guns are long and narrow at one end and wide and almost triangular at the other while cameras are blocky. However, what disturbed me the most was how happy and excited the soldiers/military personnel sounded when they killed those people.
When Manning discovered the video she was shocked and felt the need to show people what the government was doing in the Middle East, and I'm glad that she did. I think that ever citizen, especially in a democratic nation, should know what their country is doing during a war, yet whistleblowing falls into awkward judicial territory. What Assange did with the assistance of Manning was technically illegal; Manning stole intel and Assange made public sensitive information. Yet some believe whistleblowers like Assange and Manning shouldn't be punished such as Daniel Ellsberg, another famous whistleblower.
Whistleblower's Defense
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| Ellsberg speaking at event to help free Manning. |
At the end of an interview with Dennis J. Bernstein, Ellsberg states why whistleblowers are important: "Without whistleblowers we would not have a democracy. And there have to be people to distribute work and publish it. Julian Assange has done that in a way in which other publishers have not been willing to." The public deserves to be aware of what's happening both within and out of the country when it comes to foreign relations. For Ellsberg, Assange and Manning were doing what not only needed to be done but what should have been done earlier. I agree with Ellsberg, and I'm thankful for those who risk their livelihoods (and sometimes lives) to make important information known.
Overall, I think it's sad that we have whistleblowers in the first place. The First Amendment gives us so much freedom, yet it has its limits. This is why whistleblowers are either admired or hated because they push the boundaries of the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Press to better the world we live in.
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