New York Times: Snowden to Receive Truth-Telling Prize

This morning, it was officially announced that NSA whistleblower/GAP client Edward Snowden and journalist Laura Poitras have won the coveted Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling. The award is widely considered the highest honor a whistleblower can receive, and is presented to citizens or journalists for “bringing a specific issue of social importance to the public’s attention.” Snowden was honored for “exposing the scope of the NSA’s warrantless surveillance state,” while Poitras won for her “reporting and vital role in the NSA disclosures.”

Previous GAP clients that have won this prize include Countrywide/Bank of America whistleblower Eileen Foster (2012), NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake (2011), and White House/climate science whistleblower Rick Piltz (2006).

Related ArticlesThe HillNational JournalRTRidenhour Awards


CNN: Rand Paul Considering Expanded Whistleblower Laws for Contractors

While speaking at a libertarian event yesterday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) signaled his interest to “expand the whistleblower statute to government contractors.” Providing strong, codified whistleblower protections to intelligence community contractors has been a hot topic since contractor Snowden’s disclosures, as he has pointed to the lack of protections as one of the reasons he went to the media with his concerns. GAP has advocated for such protections for years.

In other Snowden news, the whistleblower spoke this past weekend via satellite link, along with journalist Glenn Greenwald, before an Amnesty International event in Chicago. The journalist received a “raucous welcome” and the whistleblower a standing ovation before they detailed the serious threats of metadata and mass surveillance to Americans’ civil liberties.


WRVO: Louis Clark on The Campbell Conversations

While participating at several American Whistleblower Tour stops two weeks ago in the Syracuse area, GAP President Louis Clark gave a lengthy interview to the regional NPR station. During the 24-minute piece, Clark discussed GAP’s history, the ongoing success of the Tour, and the constant issues that whistleblowers face when revealing the truth.

Key Quote: HOST: So tell me about the American Whistleblower Tour. What is its purpose? What’s it doing?

CLARK: Well for three years we’ve been going to various college campuses, the people who would have us here. And talking to the students about what whistleblowing’s all about and introducing them to whistleblowers. At Syracuse we brought 5 incredible people, and from all walks of life. And they’ve been going to classes and talking to students as well as a major presentation that you might recall. That all has been really very exciting. Students are incredibly interested. Maybe it’s just a different kind of lecture than they are used to, but it’s been an incredible experience. And the whistleblowers are incredibly happy to have participated in the program as well because we get a lot ourselves, just talking to the students and hearing about and appreciating their idealism and matching that with our own.


NBC11 (Atlanta): Jury Awards Whistleblower $700K in State Ethics Commission Trial

On Friday, a jury awarded $700,000 to the former head of a Georgia ethics commission after she was fired for attempting to investigate “Gov. Nathan Deal’s 2010 campaign reports and financial disclosures.”

 

Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.