Not publishing newsworthy leaks isn’t journalistic integrity, it’s timidity
AP Photo/Jon Elswick
Reporting on leaked information informs the public, while claims of harm are often overblown.
Journalists routinely rely on leaked information to inform the public. Without leaks, we’d be left in the dark about vital information involving the government, corporations, and powerful individuals, who often act in secret.
When government information is leaked, the U.S. routinely claims, without proof, that the leak damages national security. We should be skeptical of claims that leaks cause harm, and of broad leak investigations that can lead to the surveillance of journalists and sources and the chilling of reporting.
Featured Items
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On Secrecy, Oaths, and Edward Snowden
These two pieces, the first by Marcy Wheeler, in part commenting on the second by Amy Davidson in the New Yorker (along with Snowden himself, in his interview with Bart Gellman) are the first I've seen making a point I've been making for years: contrary to the frequent …
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Amazing New Book Reveals Whistleblowers of J. Edgar Hoover’s Illegal FBI For the First Time
Whenever NSA overreach is discussed, many—even the NSA’s biggest advocates—refer back to J. Edgar Hoover's illegal FBI domestic surveillance program in the 1960s and 70s as the prime example of an out-of-control intelligence agency and the dangers of a surveillance state. But rarely, if ever, does anyone refer to how …
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Freedom of the Press Foundation Condemns the Egregious Sentence of Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning, the army intelligence analyst who brought hundreds of thousands of documents to the public through the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, was sentenced today to 35 years in prison. (You can read the full transcript of the judge's sentence here.) This harsh overreaction is intended to send a message …
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Why Edward Snowden Cannot Receive a Fair Trial in the United States
There are a multitude of errors in the one paragraph Thomas Friedman dedicated to Edward Snowden in his New York Times column yesterday (Snowden’s leak was the opposite of a “data dump;” he didn’t “flee” to Russia, the U.S. trapped him there; “authentic” whistleblowers are punished all the time), …
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Bradley Manning Did Not Hurt the United States
In his sentencing hearing yesterday, Bradley Manning took the stand and apologized for the "hurt" he inflicted on the United States. While the legal strategy of Manning’s attorney at this point—as it would be for any attorney—is to convince the judge to reduce Manning's sentence as much as possible, …
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Congress' Dangerous Attempts to Define “Journalist” in Shield Law Threaten to Exclude Bloggers
This has been cross-posted from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Lawmakers in Washington are again weighing in on who should and should not qualify as a journalist—and the outcome looks pretty grim for bloggers, freelancers, and other non-salaried journalists. On July 12, the Justice Department released its new guidelines on …
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How Today's Ruling in the Bradley Manning Case Could Adversely Affect Journalists and Whistleblowers
A version of this post originally appeared on the ACLU Free Future blog in 2012. It has been updated and cross-posted with permission from the author. Today, the military judge overseeing the court martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has admitted to giving government documents to WikiLeaks, is expected to …
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Media Continues to Focus on Snowden Rather Than the Information He's Revealed
The above words, from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, are revealing: They tell us about a man completely aware of the gravity of his choices, and of the implications of the information he leaked. They tell us that Snowden—fully aware of the media circus that surrounded the personalities, rather than the …
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A Review of the Justice Dept’s New Guidelines For Leak Investigations Involving the Press
In response to widespread outrage over the Justice Department’s sprawling leak investigations that engulfed reporters from the Associated Press and Fox News two months ago, Attorney General Eric Holder released long-awaited updates to its guidelines for investigations involving news media. (Ironically, they were leaked to the media before being officially …
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Transcript: Yochai Benkler Testifies at Bradley Manning Trial
This portion of transcript for the afternoon session of United States v. Pfc. Bradley Manning was taken at Fort Meade, Maryland on July 10, 2013 by journalist Alexa O'Brien. While the utmost care was taken, it is an unofficial transcript, and may contain errors. Judge Col. Denise Lind Please …
