The Whistleblower status was meant when breaking laws like Official Secrets Act, so a meaningfully different concern as you mention, but by presenting leakers that way, the press is framing them in a protective light. I believe that the official status of whistleblower is only in certain circumstances (the institution is knowingly breaking the law or “mismanagement, gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety”) and I’m not sure who decides whether someone applies—presumably the judge in one of the subsequent cases, which comes much later and therefore expose the person leaking information to a substantial legal risk in the meantime.
I suspect that the press is trying to encourage more leaks by avoiding headlines about how previous leakers ended up in hot waters.