Whistleblowers: Dissenters, Advocates, Criminals, or Loyalists?

Are current whistleblowing protections sufficient? Should whistleblowers be lionized or stigmatized? What will recent high-profile cases mean for future whistleblowers and the journalists and publications who cover their stories?

At the third forum in our series on the NSA in context, expert panelists will explore the historical, cultural, legal, and political dimensions of whistleblowing. They will assess today’s controversy over the NSA and other national security-related whistleblowing cases and the questions they raise about the roles of whistleblowers, government agencies, journalists, editors, and media platforms.
 

Julia Angwin is an award-winning investigative journalist at the independent news organization ProPublica. Her book, Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance, will be published by Times Books in 2014.

Mike German is a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, where his work focuses on law enforcement and intelligence oversight and reform.

Ray McGovern is a retired 27-year CIA analyst and public advocate for the responsible behavior and use of information by U.S. intelligence agencies. He leads the “Speaking Truth to Power” section of Tell the Word.

David Pozen is an associate professor at Columbia Law School who has written extensively on constitutional law, national security law, public law, and information law and policy.