http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/janetalbrechtsen/index.php/theaustralian/comments/blowing_the_whistle_on_hypocrisy/P150/ .
Except for Mr Kessing. In case you have not heard, Mr Kessing was found guilty just over a week ago of leaking the contents of two classified reports that detailed serious security lapses at our airports. Those reports, one of which was buried for two years and never made it onto the desk of a senior bureaucrat or minister, were published in The Australian. Public concern over the exposé forced the Government to commission the Wheeler Review, which in turn led to one of the biggest security upgrades of airport security. If ever there was a case of a whistleblower deserving our eternal praise, this is it. Instead, he is facing prison.
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More concerned about controlling information than encouraging whistleblowers to expose department inertia and ineptitude over issues of national importance, the Howard Government made sure that Mr Kessing was punished for his efforts. Prosecuted under the Commonwealth Crimes Act, forced to rely on superannuation to defend himself against a Government miffed at a leak, Mr Kessing may end up behind bars for up to two years.
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There are leaks and then there are leaks. Some are right. Some are wrong. But for a Government obsessed with controlling every bit of information, there are no distinctions. Only stiff penalties for those who leak, no matter how beneficial the consequences of the leak.
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As much as governments would prefer the media to simply regurgitate carefully crafted ministerial media releases, spinning the government’s daily message, that is not the role of a robust media in a healthy democracy. The very best journalism is a check on government, exposing matters of national significance. Doing what The Australian did when it forced, with the help of a whistleblower, the government to secure our airports, which sit as frontline defences against terrorism.
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Protecting deserving whistleblowers such as Mr Kessing ought to be seen as a public good. Government departments will lift their game if they understand there are laws that recognise that leaks serving a genuine public interest may be justified.
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http://www.psnews.com.au/ArchivesApril07.html
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3 April, 2007
Jail Shrill Prospect For Whistleblower
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A former Customs Officer who leaked a classified report is facing up to two years in jail.
Allan Robert Kessing, 59, was found guilty by a Sydney jury of the unlawful disclosure of information by a former Commonwealth officer. Judge James Bennett bailed Mr Kessing to appear on May 25 for sentencing.
Mr Kessing - who had left Customs by the time the report was leaked – sparked a major enquiry into airport security by leaking the report and his legal representative planned to use that as evidence his actions were justified. Sweeping improvements were made to airport security arrangements following an enquiry into the reports claims by English expert Sir John Wheeler.
The leaked report was seized on by journalists from The Australian newspaper to blow the whistle on airport security but the journalists have not revealed their sources and were not called to give evidence.
Mr Kessing’s lawyer said the case was a matter of public importance but it had attracted little attention.
“One of the things that will be very important will be how beneficial the leak of the information was about security for Sydney airport and everyone who travels through it,” the lawyer told the newspaper.
“The Wheeler report will vindicate in a substantial degree the fact that the leak itself, the contents of the reports that were leaked, had a very significant beneficial effect.”
The enquiry led to the expenditure of $200 million establishing airport police commands and boosting Customs surveillance. A number number of arrests for cocaine smuggling had also resulted.
The editor of The Australian, Paul Whittaker, said there was an urgent need for a public interest defence for Public Service whistleblowers at the Federal level.
“Rather than prosecuting people such as this, they should be giving them a medal,” he said.
Crown prosecutor, Lincoln Crowley, said a prison term for Mr Kessing was “on the cards”.
