In the highly development in technology, media has gone so far in terms of the exploit to the information. The privacy issues over the use of the Internet have been critical since there were an ongoing news reports in the international media revealing operational details about the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and its international partners global surveillance of foreign nationals and U.S citizens. The disclosures have revealed the top-secret documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013. It is inevitable that the power of media has created a considerable impact among the public. It is evident that there are a number of issues arising among the public about the ethical issues from Edward Snowden's actions if he should be punished? There has been a controversy over the action of Edward Snowden weather he is responsible for his action and the right to publicize to the information. However, this can be seen as the attempt to choose between ethical manner and unethical manner.
The Fact that Snowden Should be Punished.
In some circumstance, Snowden's action may have had good intentions to publicize the potential information to the public; however, it would be a mistake to judge the leaks by its intentions rather than the effect. The consequences of his actions are tremendous and impact to the government. This could lead to a serious problem to the government and U.S citizens as a whole. Enemies were immediately observed changing their communication channels as to avoid the surveillance following the leaks. It is clear that the NSA has sufficient legal authority to conduct legitimate counter terrorism surveillance (www.nsa.gov). If there were some unethical or illegal operations within the NSA, there were greater options for Snowden to oppose the organization rather than dramatically releasing thousands of highly classified documents.
The consequences of his actions have raised public attention and led to the serious problem toward the government in terms of the trust among the U.