Snowden effect: Accessing information and punishing whistleblowers

Snowden effect: Accessing information and punishing whistleblowers
Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Snowden’s revelations in June 2013 about massive unwarranted surveillance brings into mind various conflicts: the prerogative of a state to protect itself and the sanctity of privacy against the state. How we access information, however, is central to the Snowden revelations. Do we punish access to information, even if it be in the public interest to know material obtained in defiance of the law? What is this curious creature we call the public interest? Liberalising whistleblower laws, I argue, will provide another means to allow the public access to information on material deemed the preserve of states. However, there is a trend against this in many countries.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, Melbourne and is contributing editor to CounterPunch magazine. In 2013, he ran with Julian Assange for the Australian Senate for the newly formed WikiLeaks Party.