'Reporter's Privilege' Under Fire From Obama Administration Amid Broader War On Leaks
Source: Huffington Post
RICHMOND, Va. -- The Obama administration Friday morning continued its headlong attack on the right of reporters to protect their confidential sources in leak investigations.
Before a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, a Department of Justice lawyer argued that New York Times reporter James Risen should be forced to testify in the trial of former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling, who is charged with leaking classified information to Risen about a botched plot against the Iranian government.
Rather than arguing the specifics of the case, DOJ appellate lawyer Robert A. Parker asserted that there is no reporter's privilege when a journalist receives an illegal leak of national security secrets.
When Judge Robert Gregory asked Parker to explain why the public's interest in a free press was outweighed by the specific circumstances in this case, Parker declined. "I dont think there would be a balancing test because there's no privilege in the first place," Parker said. "The salient point is that Risen is the only eyewitness to this crime."
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/18/reporters-privilege-obama-war-leaks-new-york-times_n_1527748.html
msongs
(67,462 posts)Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)do their jobs but leave corrupt politicians alone -- unless they can frame a rival or an inconvenient politician as corrupt and ruin their reputations and families.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)It's like George W Bush & Associates never left.
n/t
lsewpershad
(2,620 posts)emilyg
(22,742 posts)coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)to the polls in November.
Hope that doesn't violate DU's TOS. if so, oh well.
cstanleytech
(26,334 posts)any president though even Obama and no I havent agreed with all of them either even the ones I understood why he made the decision he made such as the extension for longer unemployment benefits deal he made with the republicans for him agreeing to an extension to the Bush tax cuts.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)take freedom of the press very seriously. More seriously than today's MSM deserves. But still.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)and freedom of the press.
This is pitiful!
dotymed
(5,610 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)If it were a Republican, I'd be really pissed off.
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Please tell me I don't need the sarcasm thingie on this one.