If you expose crimes, you may become the hunted

Another week and another wave of stories on the National Security Agency (NSA) and the unconstitutional, out-of-control surveillance state hits the digital newsstands, showing once again why the tide is turning. Some revelations are so surreal that it is hard not to assume they are satire.

Meanwhile, despite the massive smear campaign against the whistleblower, Edward Snowden, opinion polls stand clearly with the truth-tellers. People know that they have a right to know what the government is doing in their name. State secrecy is on the run, while American privacy, long rumoured dead, is alive and kicking and wants the fight out in the open.

Last month, though, David Miranda — partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has written a string of stories based on Snowden’s leaks — was detained at Heathrow airport for almost nine hours while on a journalistic mission paid for by the Guardian. His electronics were seized and he was forced, under threat of imprisonment, to hand over his social media passwords. He was detained under the UK Terrorism Act for an act of journalism.

This was an assault on press freedom that should make every reporter shudder, no matter their opinion of the NSA. The message was sent. Perhaps worse, we learned a few days later that the US authorities had been given a “heads up” by their British counterparts that they were planning to detain Miranda. The US government did not lift a finger to stop this blatant attack on journalism and press freedom — even as it has been moving heaven and earth to bring Snowden back to the US. That should be a scandal in its own right.

Now the US owes its citizens and the international community another ‘heads up’, on whether the US will do the same to journalists working on NSA stories who are entering the US. Simply put, will the Attorney General, Eric Holder, the State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) promise safe passage to journalists, their spouses and loved ones and vow not to interfere with their reporting on these NSA stories? To date, the answer has been far from clear.

Greenwald and Laura Poitras, the two American journalists at the centre of these stories, have been doing their reporting from Brazil and Germany, respectively. The US government has not, so far, stated publicly whether they can enter the country without receiving the same outrageous treatment that Miranda received. Or worse.

Can they practise journalism in the US without their hard drives being confiscated, without an unconstitutional search and seizure taking place at the border? Are they free to enter the country without being served a subpoena, or even jailed? Unlike Britain, the US is supposed to be bound by the first amendment of the constitution, which exists to bar such treatment of journalists.

I should note that I consider both Glenn and Laura friends, as we all sit on the board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). But the reason this should concern not only the FPF but everyone in the US is not because of any specific people; we must look at these assaults from a broader perspective. We recognise that when the individual’s rights are being violated it means that my rights, our rights, are being violated too. Despite the importance of his revelations, the US purposefully stranded Snowden in Russia by cancelling his passport while he was in transit from Hong Kong, essentially forcing him into exile. We already know the government will attempt to intimidate and crush whistleblowers who challenge national security and state orthodoxy. Genuflect and get in line — or pay the heavy cost.

It is hard to blame Snowden for not wanting to come back and rot in a US jail. Chelsea Manning spent three years in jail awaiting trial, nearly a year of it in torturous conditions. She has now been sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaks exposing war crimes which have been almost universally acknowledged as having caused no real harm to the US.

Whether whistleblower, source or journalist, if you expose crimes you become the hunted. What must students and young people think when they see some of the brightest minds — and the fiercest watchdogs — of a generation unable to practice journalism in America?

If America wants to turn the tide against the national security state, it needs to stand with those souls brave enough to confront its crimes.

Will the US attorney-general, as chief law enforcement officer of the country, now go on record to say that he will guarantee the safe return and safe passage of journalists who have exercised their rights under the first amendment? Or should we now conclude that the US is willing to create a generation of exiled watchdogs who are trying to hold their government accountable from afar?

— Guardian News & Media Ltd

John Cusack is a filmmaker and writer. He is also a board member of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.