30 Jul, 2013
A Blow for the Press, and for Democracy – NYTimes.com
The case has real-world consequences not only for journalists but for all Americans. It is part of a troubling trend that includes unprecedented numbers of criminal investigations involving leaked information; the obtaining of reporters’ phone records; and even one government claim that a journalist “aided and abetted” a leak.
Mr. Risen says investigative reporting that includes the use of confidential sources is “the only way to keep the government accountable.”
Judge Roger Gregory, in his dissenting opinion for the appeals court, agreed with Mr. Risen, writing that America’s founders intended the press as a check on government power. More specifically, he said, the reporting at issue, which appeared not in The Times but in Mr. Risen’s 2006 book about the C.I.A., “State of War,” was far from “extraneous.”
“Quite the opposite,” he wrote, “it portends to inform the reader of a blundered American intelligence mission in Iran.”
Read the rest: A Blow for the Press, and for Democracy – NYTimes.com.
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