Edward Snowden’s leak in 2014 is about more than just what the government is doing, but also about the value of journalism. Journalistic reporting on the government and leaks has become a major source of conflict between the government and journalists. The journalism practice of protecting your source and revealing your source when it comes to security, privacy and the government has become a well discussed topic. Snowden’s leaks have raised the larger question about journalistic coverage and protecting sources of leaked documents.
In previous government documents leaked to journalist, such as the Wikileaks and the leaks made my Chelsea Manning and Snowden, sources have confided in journalists and handed over the material for journalists to sift through and decide what to publish instead of publishing themselves. Journalists are trusted to tell the story to the public and let them know what is leaked to them. Because they are trusted to do this job, the person who gives this information is trusting the journalists to protect their source and or protect the source until they come out on their own. Journalists have a huge responsibility to the public, but also to their sources. The journalist's responsibility has turned from the government, to the public. Their responsibility is to inform the people and to tell the public what to think about, not what to think. The United States has a constitutional commitment to freedom of speech and the press, however with the recent leaks and revelations made by journalists, the US has attempted to make regulations and to the law to ban this type of activity and to provide no relief to the leakers themselves.
It is important to look at how the future of leaks will happen and how journalists will publish this information and protect their sources during a time of increasing interference and dissatisfaction by the government.
I think its interesting that you mention that journalists are trusted to tell a story, because i think something that is overlooked is that if classified information that journalists have is discovered by the public that can be almost as damaging as the government cracking the means of communication. In the case of Snowden there was information that should not have been leaked contained in the files given to Greenwald and the other journalists, and they redacted things that may have been damaging to individuals. Having this information out there, whether it comes as a result of the government finding it, or a random person, can be damaging, and so encryption as you say is very important to the field of journalism.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it will be really interesting to see how future leaks happen and to see how the relationship between the government and journalists evolves. There will always been tension between the two, but hopefully journalists will continue to push back and not cave under future laws and regulations.
ReplyDeleteI agree that journalists responsibility has turned from the government to the pubic, which really sheds lights on the power journalists have, and how entrusted they are. The fact that people who leak stories essentially put their lives at risk and in journalists hands truly shows the power of journalism and the trust that is put into them well over the government.
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