Members of Congress Now Want to Prosecute New York Times Journalists [View all]

[Luminous Animal]

Or "Why the WikiLeaks Grand Jury is So Dangerous"

For more than a year now, EFF has encouraged mainstream press publications like the New York Times to aggressively defend WikiLeaks’ First Amendment right to publish classified information in the public interest and denounce the ongoing grand jury investigating WikiLeaks as a threat to press freedom.

Well, we are now seeing why that is so important: at a Judiciary subcommittee hearing on July 11, some members of Congress made it clear they also want New York Times journalists charged under the Espionage Act for their recent stories on President Obama’s ‘Kill List’ and secret US cyberattacks against Iran. During the hearing, House Republicans “pressed legal experts Wednesday on whether it was possible to prosecute reporters for publishing classified information,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

In addition, the Washingtonian’s Shane Harris reported a month ago that a “senior” Justice Department official “made it clear that reporters who talked to sources about classified information were putting themselves at risk of prosecution.”

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/07/why-wikileaks-grand-jury-important-some-members-congress-want-prosecute-new-york