Jailed whistleblower David McBride says he has faced threats from other inmates in Canberra prison

Sitting in a tiny interview room inside the Alexander Maconochie Centre, Canberra's only prison with a high-security wing, David McBride stares at the cameras uncomfortably.

It's the first time a television crew has been allowed into the prison to interview an inmate and he wants to make the most of it.

The former military lawyer is less than seven months into a prison sentence of five years and eight months after pleading guilty to three charges relating to sharing secret documents with journalists.

McBride has said his intention in leaking the documents was not to expose war crimes by Australian soldiers but instead to ensure military leaders were held to account.

However, the documents formed the basis of the ABC's 2017 investigative series exposing alleged war crimes titled The Afghan Files.

"We do have whistleblower protection laws, but they are a con," he tells 7.30.

"They do not work. They're like the disinformation laws … they're the opposite to what they claim to do.

"The actual reality is whistleblowers like myself, who clearly were simply well-intentioned, end up in jail as if we were criminals."

Wearing a loose grey T-shirt, shorts and runners, McBride describes his new life as hard.

"I've been looked after by a few senior people in here, prisoners, but you won't necessarily survive jail," he says.

"You literally do not know whether you're going to make it because every day is an opportunity for violence to flare up and people here are pretty serious.

"There's been threats — serious enough to make me uncomfortable being a whistleblower.

"There was a certain group that hated me because they thought that I was against good Aussie soldiers … it's a dangerous place. You're not in here for parking violations."

"People are murderers or have committed very serious offences: rape, whatever, so … they have the ability to actually carry out their threats," he says.

But he says he knew prison wasn't going to be easy.

"I don't like to complain about it because one of the things I've been saying for the last couple of years is, 'Put me in jail. It doesn't scare me. If it's a price, it has to be paid, I'm prepared to pay it,' so it will be silly for me to complain about it now and say, 'Oh my God, jail is tough,' but it is tough," he says.

McBride says each day is structured.

"I thought I'd be sitting around writing a lot of letters by candlelight, a bit like I was in the Tower of London awaiting execution. It's not really like that.

"You wake up … you all go to the gym together, you come back together, you all have lunch together, and then you have another three inspections later on in the afternoon, and you all get locked in relatively early, locked into your rooms, but you're quite emotionally exhausted each day."

McBride hopes his release will come sooner rather than later.

He is appealing his conviction and sentence next March in the ACT Court of Appeal.

If he loses, he will go to the High Court.

His lawyer Eddie Lloyd, who is preparing the appeal, says at McBride's trial, the government was successful in having evidence crucial to his defence struck out of court.

The government argued that the evidence would endanger Australia's security, which McBride denies.

She says the evidence not being admitted by the court left him with no defence and he was forced to plead guilty.

"This is a case that goes to the heart of public confidence in government, and we are turning to the public to help fund it," she says.

McBride says his case is hugely important for whistleblowing.

"I want to achieve a revolution in truth. I think it's a very dangerous situation where the government controls what you see," he says.

"People who are actually, genuinely exposing problems with the government are classified as criminals and put in jail … it's very, very dangerous."

McBride has gained detractors who have questioned his motives. Some say he's not a whistleblower.

It's a question he doesn't flinch at.

"People say I'm not a whistleblower because I'm not a war crimes whistleblower in the sense that I didn't say I saw Trooper Smith shooting an Afghan, you know, blowing his brains out one day. I didn't, and I never have said that.

"I am a whistleblower against the government. So that's a confusion to say I'm not a whistleblower. I clearly am, but I'm not a whistleblower against soldiers. I'm a whistleblower against the leadership, the generals."

McBride's stance has cost him dearly.

"Lost my job, I've lost my mental health, I had a drinking problem, I had a drug problem, I lost my wife, I almost lost my life on a number of different occasions. So yeah, it's a rocky road. It's not for the faint-hearted, but it's great to be involved in something that you actually really believed in. It's a battle that has to be fought."

He says he would do it all again.

"It is great to be doing something which makes you proud, makes your kids proud and it's important. I think it's important for the world."

Watch the interview tonight on 7.30 on ABC TV and iview.