In her article "Shooting the messenger: Why Canadians don't blow the whistle on wrongdoing" Suanne Kelman aims to unravel the Canadian stigma regarding whistleblowers. Last year, when Wikileaks declassified a large quantity of corrupt government documents, the general canadian's reaction was not one of solidarity, but rather of condemnation. Kelman believes that, "somewhere in the Canadian psyche there seems to be a rooted belief that whistleblowing is not nice"(200). This explains why the canadian discussion tends to revolve more around the founder of Wikileaks' character, rather than the issue of transparency itself. It is not as if there are no cases of government corruption in canada.…
In what was just supposed to be a collective-bargaining for new teacher contracts, the violations of a cellular conversation prompted a historical court case, Bartnicki V. Vopper. Gloria Bartnicki occupied the positon of chief union negotiator for District Teachers Union. In a disputable cellular conversation between Bartnicki and the union president, Anthony Kane, an unidentified person intercepted the call and recorded the conversation. The unidentified person then gave the recording to Jack Yokum, who was the president Wyoming Valley West Tax Payers’ Association. Yokum’s job was to disapprove of any actions for the new teacher’s contract.…
Alberto Gonzalez an early advocate of the controversial USA Patriot Act. During Gonzalez' tenure the justice department and the Federal Bureau were accused of improperly, and perhaps illegally, us9ing the patriot act to uncover personal information about US citizens. raised the possibility that New York Times journalists could be prosecuted for publishing classified information based on the outcome of the criminal investigation underway into leaks to the Times of data about the National Security Agency's surveillance of terrorist-related calls between the United States and abroad. he said, "As we do in every case, it's a case-by-case evaluation about what the evidence shows us, our interpretation of the law. We have an obligation to enforce…
Edward Joseph Snowden is an “American Computer professional, former CIA employee, and former contractor for the United States government who copied and leaked classified information from the NSA in 2013 without prior authorization.” After taking actions to reveal thousands of National Security Agency documents, he is referred to by many as a whistleblower. Snowden, due to his actions, has been charged for violation of theft of government property and violation of the Espionage Act of 1917. Did he put himself up for government prosecution to save us? Is he our knight in shining armor?…
In this paper, the researcher reached the conclusion that the Espionage Act violated the First Amendment. The researcher reached this conclusion with evidence from class notes, with the Constitution, with websites such as…Info Please, USHistory.org, and the FirstAmendmentCenter.org. On the other hand, the Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.…
Snowden was a NSA spy for the United States, once noticing the trend relating to the attacks of 9/11, Snowden decided to leak classified information through Wikileaks.com. With the combination of the spillage of classified information, video producers decided to air a special documentaries relating to 9/11. As a result of Sept. 11, and subsequent scandals, the U.S. intelligence community has become far more open internally than it used to be, and has introduced new technologies aimed at making it easier for analysts to post, change and exchange information, and to organize internal material in easy-to-find ways (Farrell). The conspiracy and effects that affected the United States before and after 9/11; this includes affecting the social and cultural life to many Americans and foreigners alike. The United States continue to face trust issues, which sometimes the truth can make a severe impact to the United States mentally.…
) According to Messenger in Chapter 14, the Time Place Manner regulation are set to have five factors that can officially label restrictions as valid or not. These factors derive from the Heffron v. Int’l Soc. Of Krishna Consciousness. These five factors help determine the legality of punishing or restricting protests and other public speeches.…
After the signing of the Constitution, the role of the press increased as time went on. It became easier for citizens to get information because technology was advancing. The printing press had already been invented but there were advancements made to make the machine more efficient. It became power driven making it easier to print more in a smaller amount of time. Offset printing became popular for books and magazines so that they could be in color.…
According to George Gao, 56% of Americans disapprove of the NSA collecting phone records and text messages, but that means the other, almost half, of Americans feel the need to give up some of their freedom to protect national security. (Civil Liberty in America, May 29 2015) WikiLeaks, the notorious website that finds and exposes government information, poses a real threat to the national security. While a popular website today due to its high credibility, it has revealed highly classified information that has hurt not only national security but foreign relations as well as reveal military info that they could use against terrorism in the middle east. There was a small public outrage over the censorship, or rather “un-censorship”, in a St. Louis sexual assault case.…
The US government is charging him for the violation of the “Espionage Act” for leaking unauthorized information to the press and intruding on government’s property. Furthermore, Snowden leaks illustrated government inconsistency over the right of privacy. If Snowden intrudes on government privacy, it is a violation of their rights and is unconstitutional. For this reason, Snowden should be prosecuted and put in jail. When National Security Agency and US government intrude on the privacy of millions of people and justify their action by saying that it is to protect against terrorism, it is ok.…
Introduction The constitutional rights of individuals are sufficiently balanced against the importance of intelligence investigations under FISA. However, there is definitely room for transparency, and greater oversight. While the potential for abuse under FISA is considerable, the potential is mitigated by severe consequences, including prison time, for failing to follow FISA restrictions.…
One such act is that WikiLeaks revealed what was happening in the operating procedures of Guantanamo Bay. In the camp, many people were denied their rights, and some were even tortured. These acts were and still are a major violation of human rights, and WikiLeaks made that information known to the world. This video may have breached some security measures in Cuba, but under the United States, it was legal to upload. WikiLeaks is essentially beneficial for showing corruption in parts of the world, but when it’s attacking someone directly that isn’t favorable for the public, that’s, well, attacking.…
Hero or Traitor? The classic definition of a hero, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities; a person who is greatly admired.” A whistleblower does not usually come to mind with that classic definition. Edward Snowden is a whistle-blower that some consider a hero and others consider a traitor. So how do you classify a whistle-blower as a hero or traitor?…
By the year 2007, the website Assange is responsible for officially launches. With its first success of leaked information on Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, Assange knows there is no going back. WikiLeaks has taken hold, and it challenges governments and officials everywhere. The issue of WikiLeaks first made United States…
1. Why do you think that countries like China and other poor or developing nations are havens for intellectual property theft and film/video pirating? In China and other poor nations IP laws are either non-existent or not enforced. For instance, Chinese government has no interest in enforcing these laws, since Chinese businesses hold few copyrights (and those are rigorously protected).…