PROTECT GOVERNMENT WHISTLEBLOWERS

Recent events concerning the Ukraine scandal and Trump administration have brought the matter of government whistleblowers back to the forefront of national debate.

At the head of the lineup of recent-era whisteblowers is Edward Snowden, catapulted into the heights of controversy and infamy when he leaked documents detailing the secret surveillance programs of the CIA, in 2013.

Snowden compares this latest international incident with his own circumstances to demonstrate that whistleblowers really have no choice at this point but to go to the press (the media) with what they’ve learned. He explains that before he went to journalists, he made every effort to go through the proper channels at work, but kept getting shut down and was thus forced to take more drastic measures.

He cites several other government whistleblower incidents, many of which resulted in the whistleblower having their personal/work life torn apart.

This, Snowden laments, is the norm. Whistleblowers are an important part of keeping governments accountable for their actions, and yet despite the fact that there are systems in place that are supposed to give them a safe way to make their complaints, many end up getting fired, or worse.

Snowden – who fled the U.S. years ago, fearing legal prosecution – hits the nail on the head: The basic problem with government whistleblowing is that you have to report wrongdoing to those most responsible for it, he explains.

This simple fact prevents many whistleblowers from coming forward at all, and tends to shut down many of those who do.

This needs to change.

Whistleblowers, while often overlooked, are actually key figures in keeping the government and corporations morally accountable. They keep the public informed if there is something wrong happening behind the scenes, and are a powerful force for keeping corruption at bay. Yet, often while performing this duty they receive nothing but condemnation and ridicule.

We, the people, need to make it safer and more effective for whistleblowers to voice their findings, whether that means building a whole new whistleblower system, or simply improving the old one.

Although this is not always the case, these people generally seek nothing more than to get the truth into the hands of the people, so that the public might decide what to do with it (Snowden’s stated motivation, in his case).

In short, to preserve our freedom of choice, we need to preserve the freedom of our whistleblowers — after all, they are one of our last lines of defense against a powerful system.