Democracy Day 2024

Our annual reminder to hold power to account

Daniel Ellsberg revealed the cruelty of the Vietnam War. Edward Snowden made the world aware of the NSA’s aggressive invasion of privacy. The Panama Papers unveiled billions of dollars in global tax evasion. These instances show just how critical whistleblowers are for holding power to account. What better day to talk about them than International Day of Democracy?

In 2007, the UN General Assembly decided that September 15 should serve to encourage governments to strengthen and consolidate democracy. It is an opportunity to remind ourselves that democracy requires the active participation of all citizens. Nobody is more aware of this fact, than whistleblowers – ordinary citizens who witness wrongdoing, and must choose between what is easy, or what is right.

Today, whistleblowers still have limited options. Some can go through official, internal channels for coming forward with a complaint. One prominent example of this comes from former NSA executive Thomas Drake. He followed legal procedures to report concerns about privacy violations to designated authorities, from his bosses all the way up to Congress. Ultimately, his complaint was ignored and he found himself forced to pursue other paths.

Often, the most impactful option can be to provide information directly to the press. This can come at a great personal cost, however. It is illegal to share classified information and doing so can be punishable by imprisonment. Sharing information that is entirely unclassified is, in theory, legal but does not guarantee protection from criminal prosecution. The Espionage Act, originally introduced in 1917 to strengthen national defense in the context of WWI, has been used to indict whistleblowers regardless of the unclassified nature of their evidence, and with increasing frequency. Before the Obama administration, the Espionage Act has been used to indict whistleblowers only three times in US history. But during Obama’s presidency alone, there were at least eight indictments, including prominent whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Subsequent administrations have continued to try numerous whistleblowers.

Powerful interest groups can add to the threat posed to whistleblowers. The whistleblower who was behind the Panama Papers in 2016 remains anonymous to this day for fear of his life, known only as “John Doe” even to the journalists who worked on the investigation.

This is where investigative journalists enter the picture. “John Doe” shared the Panama Papers anonymously to German journalist Bastian Obermayer, who then started an investigation involving almost 400 journalists from more than 100 media organizations in over 80 countries. By going through a journalist, he managed to keep his identity hidden and start an investigation while escaping legal and professional retaliation.

This route can protect the whistleblower, but investigative journalists are in no way exempt from retaliation, as brutally evidenced by the murder of investigative journalist Jeff German in 2022, who exposed corruption and workplace misconduct in Nevada politician Robert Telles’ office. In the aftermath of German’s murder, local law enforcement sought access to the journalist’s confidential sources stored on his phone and computers, sparking a legal battle over press freedoms.

In another example, local law enforcement in Kansas executed a raid on the Marion County Record’s newsroom and the home of its co-publishers in August 2023. More than 35 news media organizations condemned this unprecedented action, with many seeing it as retaliation for the newspaper’s investigations into Police Chief Gideon Cody’s alleged misconduct.

The end of one’s career, the loss of one’s freedom, and having the feeling of a target on one’s back are strong deterrents for any whistleblower or investigative journalist. In a time where mis- and disinformation become increasingly common, voices of truth are more important than ever and need all the help they can get.

Luckily, there are organizations aiming to provide whistleblowers and journalists with just that. The Committee to Protect Journalists, for example, advocates globally for press freedom, defending journalists who are harassed or detained. Other organizations, like the Freedom of the Press Foundation and The Signals Network, provide tools, resources, and funding to help individuals disclose wrongdoing in a safe and legal way, protecting them from retaliation.

NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake reflected in an interview with Vox: “The price is enormous. I have no retirement. That’s gone. You lose your entire social network, in terms of work. There are people who lost their jobs because of their association with me. Those are burdens that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”

We cannot expect that people will continue to pay that price. If we want to live in a healthy democracy, we need to support the whistleblowers and investigative journalists empowering us to hold our governments and industries accountable. The question is, “How?” How can we use this year’s International Day of Democracy to strengthen the democracies we live in?

We can vote. We can write our representatives. We can pay attention to what they say about whistleblowers and the press and, more importantly, if they follow through. Finally, we should consider financially supporting organizations that empower journalists and whistleblowers to share their voice and advocate for laws that protect our freedom.

Tobias Grabsch

This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.