Former US private first class Bradley Manning was today sentenced to 35 years imprisonment for his leaking of thousands of classified documents, including the infamous “Collateral Murder” video documenting the killing of civilians and reporters by US troops in Iraq. Manning will be dishonourably discharged and will lose all pay and allowances[1].

Pirate Party Australia wishes to extend its condolences to Mr Manning and his family, in what can only be described as a gross injustice.

“Whistleblowing is unfortunately one of the only ways to make politics and governance transparent,” said Queensland Pirate Party Senate candidate Melanie Thomas. “As governments worldwide become increasingly secretive it is apparent that whistleblowers are vital to keeping us informed of what our governments are doing as our representatives. Individuals like Bradley Manning should be applauded for their courage in revealing war crimes, rather than punished for revealing information that needs to be public.”

Having spent more than three years awaiting trial for leaking hundreds of thousands of documents, Manning was sentenced by Colonel Denise Lind at 10:15 am Maryland local time. During that period he was held without charge for nearly a year, and subjected to treatment that extended beyond harsh, being described by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture as “cruel, inhuman and degrading.”[2] Manning’s pre-trial detention will count towards his 35 year sentence, and he will be eligible for parole after having served at least a third of his sentence. This amounts to the US Government taking away at least a decade of life from a young man for shedding light on the crimes perpetrated in his country’s name. It is plain that his acts were those of conscience and principle, and the US Government’s response has been to mete out a punishment designed to intimidate and deter everyone from engaging in such principled whistleblowing acts, for fear of the government exacting an overwhelming revenge.

This week has seen further blows to whistleblowing and freedom of the press, with Britain’s Guardian newspaper being compelled to destroy computers that held files leaked by NSA contractor Edward Snowden. These files are related to PRISM, a secret surveillance program being operated by the NSA that has archived vast amounts of data flowing through the United States, and other surveillance programs.

In addition to this strong-arming by the British Government, the partner of a Guardian journalist who has reported extensively on the Snowden leaks was detained in London en route to Brazil under the auspices of the Terrorism Act. Glenn Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda, was detained for nine hours at Heathrow Airport, in what many claim was an attempt to intimidate journalists and whistleblowers. Miranda’s lawyer has described the power provided by the Terrorism Act as “draconian” and the motives as “highly questionable.” The lawyer expressed concerns that the exercise of the power will have a “chilling effect on journalists worldwide.”[3]

“The use of the provisions outlined in schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act are a textbook example of overreach and scope creep by government and law enforcement agencies,” Thomas continued. “These laws were written with the assurance that they were to be used in cases directly related to terrorism, yet already we can see them being used to harrass and silence people that the government finds inconvenient.”

The ability of whisteblowers to shed light on government wrongdoing and corruption is a key pillar of a democratic and free society. A democracy cannot function in darkness: an informed populace is essential. Pirate Party Australia recognises the beneficial role that whistleblowers play, and as such has a comprehensive policy to protect public servants, no matter what their role, from prosecution when exposing institutional wrong-doing.

Whistleblowers provide the capacity to swiftly identify and manage wrongdoing and corruption and are thus an important check on potential abuses of power. Repeated instances of harsh and inappropriate punishment and covert forms of deterrence over the past 10 years provide a strong case for improving the robustness of whistleblower protections. It is past time that whistleblowers gained the essential freedom to speak out without fear of undue reprisal, and with reasonable confidence that wrongs will be righted.

Pirate Party Australia’s policy: https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policies/Reform_of_Democratic_Institutions

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/bradley-manning-35-years-prison-wikileaks-sentence
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/12/bradley-manning-cruel-inhuman-treatment-un
[3] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/20/david-miranda-detention-glenn-greenwald