MAPW deplores the sentence of nearly 6 years in prison given to whistle-blower David McBride in the ACT Supreme Court today.
We are appalled at this farcical legal process whereby there is persecution of a man who brought to light what he saw as crimes within Australia’s military – allegations upheld by the subsequent Brereton inquiry – and those responsible for those crimes walk free.
David McBride’s sentencing is a travesty of democracy. Instead of preaching democracy to others, we should be putting our own house in order first.
Meanwhile journalist Julian Assange awaits his fate in Belmarsh Prison in London, at the mercy of our “allies” the US and the UK.
Democracy means that those who expose credible evidence of crimes should be protected, not imprisoned. It means genuine media freedom, and not a situation where journalists are intimidated into silence, so that we don’t know what has been done in our name in Afghanistan, Iraq, elsewhere in the Middle East or in fact any other part of the world.
We need truth-tellers, and people whose actions reflect moral values. David McBride’s service to his country by exposing wrong-doing comes at enormous personal cost.
He should be honoured, not imprisoned.