In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has again strongly criticized the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for a range of problems and inconsistencies in the agency's handling of whistleblower protections.

Classified documents from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, released in recent months on the whistleblower website Wikileaks, have garnered public attention and prompted widespread debate. For instance, the website's Afghan War Diary, released in late July 2010, contains thousands of classified military documents relating to the war in Afghanistan. Such leaks have raised questions about whether the information should have been released, whether the leaker and Wikileaks should face prosecution, and the military’s strategies to control information.

The Sixth Annual Ridenhour Awards were presented April 16 by the Nation Institute and the Fertel Foundation. The awards are presented each year to journalists and whistleblowers in honor of Ron Ridenhour, a former Vietnam veteran who exposed the 1968 massacre at My Lai. The awards are given to those who act to protect the public interest and promote social justice. The 2009 awardees were Thomas Tamm, Bob Herbert, Jane Mayer, and Nick Turse.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Christopher Cox recently emphasized the urgent need for transparency of currently unregulated credit transactions, called credit default swaps (CDS), that contributed to the ongoing economic crisis. Cox is using the SEC's program to modernize its electronic disclosure system as a platform to call for oversight while the agency investigates alleged fraudulent transactions. Meanwhile, two other federal agencies are vying for regulatory oversight of CDS and industry is lobbying to minimize the impact. At issue will be whether transparency is accompanied with any other forms of accountability.