David McBride, a former Australian Army lawyer, was released from a Canberra prison on Thursday after being granted parole. McBride had been serving a sentence for his role in leaking classified defense documents related to the war in Afghanistan. He was originally sentenced in May 2024 to a maximum term of five years and eight months.

There is a difference in how the outlets describe the nature of McBride’s actions. SBS News refers to him simply as a "whistleblower," while The Guardian describes him as someone jailed for "stealing secret defence documents" and leaking them to the media. The Guardian also notes that McBride pleaded guilty to three charges in November 2023, following a legal process where the ACT Supreme Court upheld a Commonwealth intervention to withhold specific evidence. The government had argued that the disclosure of this evidence could have compromised national security and defense interests. McBride has now completed the 27-month non-parole portion of his sentence.