Re: [privacy] U.S. DoJ: Reporters May be Prosecuted for Leaks

[Florian Weimer <fw () deneb enyo de>]

* Fergie:

> The attack on the Freedom of The Press escalates.

> [snip]
>
> A top Justice department official refused to tell a Senate panel
> Tuesday if it is considering prosecuting any journalists for leaked
> national security information.

Sorry, I don't think freedom of press includes breaking the law.
Journalists should be treated like ordinary citizens in all regards.
If a law threatens freedom of press, the law should be repealed.  It
should not be fixed by not enforcing at against journalists.

In Germany, we have a pretty ridiculous situation: As a journalist,
you don't have to testify in court, and you need not reveal your
sources.  However, this right is granted to you based on your
*profession*.  If you are by all other standards a journalist, but
your activities are just a hobby, you cannot take advantage of this
protection.  Everybody I've talked to expect that to be shot down in
court if the first blogger decides to fight, but it's very unlikely to
have a permanent effect because legislation can be introduced to fix
this (for example, by requiring some form of certification, like the
one that is required by legal advisers).

Recently, it got even better: Our intelligence service are forbidden
from monitoring (or recruiting) *any* journalist.  The justification
is that the BND allegedly went overboard while tracking leaks to
journalists, and apparently it was necessary to quell the journalistic
outcry.  However, some of the most effective HUMINT and OSINT
operations in this country are run by the media, and it's unrealistic
to ignore that information or use only the parts that are publicly
available.
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