I missed this from Glenn Greenwald. It’s more in-depth on the specifics…and what it means to investigative journalists. In essence, it is criminalizing the act of journalism.
From the article:
Under US law, it is not illegal to publish classified information. That fact, along with the First Amendment’s guarantee of press freedoms, is what has prevented the US government from ever prosecuting journalists for reporting on what the US government does in secret. This newfound theory of the Obama DOJ – that a journalist can be guilty of crimes for “soliciting” the disclosure of classified information – is a means for circumventing those safeguards and criminalizing the act of investigative journalism itself.
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Our democracy depends on being able to inform the citizens of their government’s actions, so that they can make informed decisions towards that government. As Greenwald points out—the media was silent with Julian Assange…and only now are they starting to squawk now that AP has been caught up in the assault on the freedom of speech and the press…