It's important to note that McBride's motives for leaking the information, as conceded by his own lawyers in court, was not to 'expose the crimes,' but because he believed the soldiers had done nothing wrong and were being unfairly investigated. This is the slant he went to the ABC with, who upon receiving the material realized that no, actually the soldiers had committed serious war crimes. I'm not entirely comfortable with his prison sentence, but honesty is important. He wasn't trying to bring the truth to light but rather derail active investigations
And yet still revealed valuable information.
Yes, which is why I said I'm uncomfortable with this prison sentence. His actions ended up being good, but his motives weren't. He's a whistleblower by accident but still probably deserves protections
