“The freedom to inform is one of the pillars of our democracy”.

Victor Hugo’s 1848 speech about the press

Whistleblowers and Journalism

For the whistleblowers, the media is one of the privileged interlocutors in spite of the displeasure of the multinationals taking them to court. The journalists, whose job and duty is to inform, see real ‘scoop’ suppliers in these responsible citizens.

The Italian artist Davide Dormino and his statues #anythingtosay? Pompidou Center, Paris, September 2015 - Personal collection

Who else but an artist could express what courage represents towards the steamroller which we all face? The Italian sculptor DavideDormino had wished to pay a tribute to Assange, Snowden and Manning whilst creating ‘Anything to Say’? Three bronze statues standing on three chairs next to an empty chair. The citizens are invited to have the courage to talk while standing on the fourth and empty chair to “have another perspective because these three icons have done it at the price of their freedom” declares the artist who insists on the meaning of his work: “Artists have always worked for freedom and with freedom”. The statues have been travelling during temporary exhibitions. They travel “like a messenger”, explains the Italian.

In 2015, Christophe Deloire, General Secretary at ReportersSans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders), declared, standing on the empty chair of the sculpture Anything to Say? that the “journalists are the watchdog of the democracy. Defending the journalists and the protection of their sources, the whistleblowers, is not a privilege for the democracy. Otherwise, there is no information but only communication and propaganda”. With the same state of mind, Catherine Deneuve made godmother of the statues on the occasion, read a text written by Dr Irène Frachon, where the auditors recall that “being a whistleblower is not a profession, it is a moral conscience”.

“Without the whistleblowers, the journalists cannot access certain types of information, they cannot know what’s really going on at the heart of the companies and administration: insiders are essential” said Élise Lucet, journalist at France Télévisions, in January 2015 when receiving the Anticor ‘Éthique contre Casseroles’ prize (Ethics vs. Pans) adding that “without whistleblowers, the journalists cannot do their job properly”.

We, whistleblowers, are a symbol of the Resistance. We have joined the side of the boisterous ones. We have been able to count on committed journalists and independent media. Thanks to the exposed scandals which have until now been hidden, one acknowledges a slow awakening of the conscience of the citizens.

The only way to keep a secret is to never have one.

Julian Assange

Norman Solomon wears several hats. Among other things, he is the founder of RootsAction.org and of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He also works with “Reporters Without Borders” in Washington DC. He has namely contributed to two recent events relating to the American whistleblowers James Risen and Jeffrey Sterling. As a journalist and an activist, Norman Solomon has worked a lot towards the defense of Manning. When we met in 2015, we shared the idea of the importance of exchanges between whistleblowers on an international scale. According to him:

The individuals and the communication between each of them deserve to be protected whereas governments and multinationals should be transparent. Instead, we have governments and multinationals enjoying protection while refusing this very principle of communication to citizens. In a word, protection and transparency are inverted. We need whistleblowers to put light on activities relating to the peak of the power, they are supposed t