For
those of us wondering what ever came of the whistleblowing Army intelligence analyst
Bradley Manning, no television channels seem to think his trial is newsworthy,
and no newspapers who were the first to publish hundreds of stories from his
leaked content seem to want to report a couple more media relevant news stories
on his trial. Sounds a bit strange no? Is the media taking a revenge attitude
towards Bradley Manning especially since it was a previously little known
website called Wikileaks that was the first media outlet to release the
document, or is the United States media in particular just too weary of
government censorship that they think their actions covering the trial will
bring on further repercussions? Either way the country that preaches freedom of
press and freedom of speech should do themselves a favor and become a little
less hypocritical regarding the biggest whistleblowing news release of this
current generation.
Bradley
Manning has already pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges against him by the
United States government. His sentence is likely to be 20 years in military
prison after being dishonorably discharged. The biggest ramification to the
trial besides the controversial imprisonment of Bradley Manning is the trial
result and its overall significance regarding the freedom of press in the
United States. Aside from being charged according to the Espionage Act, the
second charge includes a condition accusing him according to the Guardian of “wrongfully and wantonly [causing] to be
published on the internet intelligence belonging to the US government, having
knowledge that intelligence published on the internet is accessible to the
enemy”.
The
purpose of the charge is to be able to prosecute any leak of official
classified information released on the internet. The charge implies that any
official leak will make it available to al-Qaida and will make the culpable
party guilty of aiding terrorist networks. The gray lines regarding the
situation however lie in the hypothetical made towards the prosecution lawyers
when they questioned whether the same charges could then be brought up had
Manning leaked the documents to other news outlet such as the New York Times.
The prosecutor responded that yes these publications would also be implicated.
While
the question seemed to be hypothetical, the situation held some reality as
Manning admitted in court that he gave the documents to Wikileaks only after
failing receive interest from the New York Times and Washington Post. Two
publications that then had media resource content for the next four years.
The
outcome and severity of Manning’s sentence is still unknown, but the
development in the case showcase the government’s dedication to make any leaked
classified information to media outlets as means for prosecution no matter how relevant
and newsworthy they may be to the general interest, and more importantly the
charges implicate any reporters complacent to reach out to a whistleblower with
leaked classified documents in order to find out pressingly crucial information
regarding both United States domestic and foreign policy actions.
On a lighter note here is a video dealing with Bradley Manning, Wikileaks and few other famous faces by Cuban Grupo Alleguez Son, called "El Son de los Wikileaks".
