Whistleblowers Under The Espionage Act

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of whistleblowers pointing out questionable acts by the American government. The government has responded by prosecuting the whistleblowers under the Espionage Act. The question then arises, what exactly is whistle blowing? In academic literature, whistle blowing is defined as "the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral and illegitimate practices under the control of their employers to persons and organizations that may be able to effect action" (Near & Miceli, 1985, p.6). In many, if not all cases, the disclosures have been of immoral or illegitimate practices. However, governments and different organizations are fighting tirelessly to deter future
It has also been seen as an act of dissent since it involves the disclosure of information that governments or organizations seek to keep private. In the United States, many whistleblowers are deemed criminal and charged with violating the Espionage Act. The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law that was passed in 1917 and intended to prohibit interference with military operations or recruitment to prevent insubordination in the military. Some of those recently charged for violating the Espionage Act are Pentagon papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, cablegate whistleblower Chelsea Manning and NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Whether or not the Espionage Act is misinterpreted is a question of its own but what remains an issue to be discussed are the serious crimes committed by governments or organizations but never brought to book. Nevertheless, legal protection for whistleblowers varies from country to country thus many countries have adopted comprehensive protection laws which create mechanisms for reporting wrongdoing and providing legal action for the whistleblower. For example, the office of the public sector integrity commissioner of Canada (PSIC) provides a safe mechanism to the public servants and general public to disclose wrongdoings and serves to protect those that have disclosed wrongdoings and those that cooperate in
WikiLeaks is a popular not-for-profit organization with a main goal of providing leaked information to the masses. The organization feels it's the right of the people to express their freedom of speech, opinion and expression without interference. They support their actions based off the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular, Article 19, which states everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Anonymous is another hacking group that has voiced its admiration for whistleblowers as well as partnering with various groups to hack in different government systems to leak information. Furthermore, ethical judgment as understood and only interpreted by a particular person such as a whistleblower is said to play a factor or major influence in whistleblowing. In general, ethical judgment may be defined as "an individual's personal evaluation of the degree to which some behavior or course of action is ethical or unethical" (Sparks & Pan, 2010, p. 409).
In conclusion, the Espionage Act has been used to charge various whistleblowers with espionage charges w hile other ethical guidelines have been set by various organizations yet they tend to serve and protect the violators such as big corporations