McBride’s guilty plea to have a chilling effect on whistleblowing and public interest journalism
Civil society groups have raised concerns about the democratic impact of the prosecution of David McBride, after the Afghan Files whistleblower pleaded guilty to three charges on Friday afternoon.
McBride will be sentenced at a later date. McBride’s plea came after pre-trial rulings this week blocked the use of a defence that the former Army lawyer’s actions were in the public interest. Last year, McBride was forced to abandon a defence under federal whistleblowing law following a last-minute national security intervention by the government.
The Labor Government had earlier resisted calls from lawyers and civil society groups to intervene and stop the prosecution.
Rex Patrick, Former Senator and Founder of the Whistleblower Justice Fund said:
“This is a dark day for democracy in Australia. The Attorney-General could have stopped this, but refused to, and now we have a whistleblower facing years in jail.”
“With no legal protections as a whistleblower, this outcome was almost inevitable for David McBride. That’s why we had pleaded with the Attorney-General to intervene in the public interest.
“In just one single moment, whistleblowing in Australia has been shut down. How is that a good thing?”
Kieran Pender, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre said:
“There is no public interest in prosecuting whistleblowers, and certainly no public interest in sending them to jail. If McBride is sentenced to a term of imprisonment, the Attorney-General should immediately pardon him to recognise the dangerous impact this case is having on Australian democracy.”
“This development must be a warning sign to the government that reform to federal whistleblowing law and the establishment of a whistleblower protection authority is urgent and long overdue. We cannot wait any longer.”
Rawan Arraf, Executive Director ”f the Australian Centre for International Justice said:
“Australia is now looking to jail the first person in relation to war crimes in Afghanistan, except it is not a war criminal but a person who helped expose them.”
“This case has been a stain on Australia’s international reputation and undermines the important work done by the Brereton Inquiry. Australia needs to get back to the real work of investigating and prosecuting war crimes.”
Prof. Peter Greste, Executive Director of Alliance for Journalists' Freedom said:
“As the source of the ABC’s Afghan Files reporting, it was McBride’s whistleblowing that brought allegations of war crimes by Australian forces in Afghanistan to the public’s attention.
“This guilty plea, and the prospect that David McBride could now face years in jail, will have a major chilling effect on whistleblowing and public interest journalism. You cannot have press freedom without the protection of journalists' sources.”
Professor AJ Brown AM - Griffith University and Transparency International Australia:
“The way that Commonwealth agencies have conducted this case amounts to little short of dirty tricks, to escape and override having any federal whistleblower protections at all.""If every time a federal whistleblower is charged, they are forced to plead guilty because they cannot get the fair public interest hearing in court which our laws clearly intend, then it just makes a mockery of having any whistleblower protection act at all.”
Background
McBride’s trial began in the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory on Monday with arguments about preliminary legal issues. On Friday, Justice Mossop ruled that the government could keep key evidence in the case secret, even from the jury, following a public interest immunity application. His Honour also denied an application from McBride that the trial be permanently suspended in light of the secrecy. A jury had been scheduled to be impanelled on Monday.
Image credit: Amanda Smith
Media contact:
Michelle Bennett: 0419 100 519, michelle.bennett@hrlc.org.au
Chandi Bates: 0430 277 254, chandi@droptheprosecutions.org.au