better-dead-than-fed
07-20-2013, 11:38 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/us/in-major-ruling-court-orders-times-reporter-to-testify.html
In a major ruling on press freedoms, a divided federal appeals court on Friday ruled that James Risen, an author and a reporter for The New York Times, must testify in the criminal trial of a former Central Intelligence Agency official charged with providing him with classified information.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/20/press-freedoms-manning-risen
The Obama DOJ obtained what it considers an important victory: an appellate court in Virginia rejected the argument from New York Times reporter Jim Risen that, as a journalist, he cannot be compelled to testify about the identity of his sources. I wrote last year about the reasons the Obama DOJ's pursuit of Risen is so pernicious and threatening to press freedom and gave the background to the case: here. As he set forth in his affidavit, Risen believes, with good reason, that the DOJ's pursuit of him is in retaliation for his prior reporting, including his having exposed the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program in 2005.
Greenwald here refers to an article he wrote last year, but he erroneously links to the wrong article, so I haven't found his article from last year.
Risen's argument is here (http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/sterling/062111-risen115.pdf), and the court opinion is here (http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/115028.P.pdf).
Risen is seeking a special 1st-Amendment privilege for "reporters". I don't think that would be good for the rest of us, because Freedom of Press is supposed to belong to everyone, not just people the government deems as "reporters". I don't think anyone should ever be compelled to speak, in court or anywhere else.
In a major ruling on press freedoms, a divided federal appeals court on Friday ruled that James Risen, an author and a reporter for The New York Times, must testify in the criminal trial of a former Central Intelligence Agency official charged with providing him with classified information.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/20/press-freedoms-manning-risen
The Obama DOJ obtained what it considers an important victory: an appellate court in Virginia rejected the argument from New York Times reporter Jim Risen that, as a journalist, he cannot be compelled to testify about the identity of his sources. I wrote last year about the reasons the Obama DOJ's pursuit of Risen is so pernicious and threatening to press freedom and gave the background to the case: here. As he set forth in his affidavit, Risen believes, with good reason, that the DOJ's pursuit of him is in retaliation for his prior reporting, including his having exposed the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program in 2005.
Greenwald here refers to an article he wrote last year, but he erroneously links to the wrong article, so I haven't found his article from last year.
Risen's argument is here (http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/sterling/062111-risen115.pdf), and the court opinion is here (http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/115028.P.pdf).
Risen is seeking a special 1st-Amendment privilege for "reporters". I don't think that would be good for the rest of us, because Freedom of Press is supposed to belong to everyone, not just people the government deems as "reporters". I don't think anyone should ever be compelled to speak, in court or anywhere else.