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Saturday, January 17, 2015
THE GOVERNMENT RETREAT - A BIT - IN ITS ASSAULT ON PRESS FREEDOM
This past week, the Department of Justice retreated from the attacks on press freedom that marked the Obama Administration’s early years. First, on Monday, federal prosecutors announced that they would not call reporter James Risen to testify in the trial of Jeffrey Sterling. And then, on Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced (but did not publish) revisions to the policy governing when the Department of Justice can seek to question journalists or obtain information from media organizations about their sources. Maybe the Obama Administration has finally realized how important a role a free press plays in our democracy, or perhaps it finally occurred to AG Holder that it is embarrassing and hypocritical to jail journalists for refusing to reveal their sources while the U.S. is condemning Iran and other governments for similar actions.
Risen had been subpoenaed in 2008 to appear before a grand jury and to testify about the source of information in his book concerning a CIA-led scheme to feed Iranians flawed information about nuclear reactors. He said at the time, and consistently, that he would not disclose his sources, and moved to quash the subpoena. After a multi-year battle in the courts, the Fourth Circuit held — in a terrible opinion for the Fourth Estate — that there was no constitutional privilege for journalists to refuse to disclose their sources to a criminal grand jury. Last June, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal. That set the stage for Risen, a high-profile New York Times reporter, to be held in contempt and sentenced to jail for refusing to testify.
TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/16/government-retreats-on-press-freedom-assault/
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Politicians
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