Columbia School of Journalism Comes Out Against Prosecution of Julian Assange
By: David Dayen Wednesday December 15, 2010 8:14 am
Twenty members of the Columbia School of Journalism have written a letter to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder expressing their opposition to charging Wikileaks founder Julian Assange with criminal counts for leaking a cache of classified State Department cables.
Some of the professors who signed the statement dont agree with Assange or his methods. In fact, one high-profile signer, Professor Todd Gitlin, wrote a condemnation of Assange just a week or so ago in The New Republic. He said in the story that Wikileaks would weaken diplomatic relations across the world and increase official secrecy. And yet he believes that Assange should be protected from prosecution. There are plenty of unethical or otherwise wrong-headed actions that should be morally sanctioned but remain legal, Gitlin said. He added that Wikileaks is certainly conducting journalistic activity, and that a prosecution would chill journalistic conduct across the country. This is from the letter:
Any prosecution of Wikileaks staff for receiving, possessing or publishing classified materials will set a dangerous precedent for reporters in any publication or medium, potentially chilling investigative journalism and other First Amendment-protected activity.
As a historical matter, government overreaction to publication of leaked material in the press has always been more damaging to American democracy than the leaks themselves.
The U.S. and the First Amendment continue to set a world standard for freedom of the press, encouraging journalists in many nations to take significant risks on behalf of transparency. Prosecution in the Wikileaks case would greatly damage American standing in free-press debates worldwide and would dishearten those journalists looking to this nation for inspiration.
Gitlin said that the Espionage Act in particular, which he couldnt cite used in a case of this type since World War II, would create a very broad standard for prosecution on publishing virtually any state secret. WikiLeaks, approve its m.o. or not, is certainly conducting what the letter calls journalistic activity, however flawed, Gitlin concluded.
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More at the link
By: David Dayen Wednesday December 15, 2010 8:14 am
Twenty members of the Columbia School of Journalism have written a letter to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder expressing their opposition to charging Wikileaks founder Julian Assange with criminal counts for leaking a cache of classified State Department cables.
Some of the professors who signed the statement dont agree with Assange or his methods. In fact, one high-profile signer, Professor Todd Gitlin, wrote a condemnation of Assange just a week or so ago in The New Republic. He said in the story that Wikileaks would weaken diplomatic relations across the world and increase official secrecy. And yet he believes that Assange should be protected from prosecution. There are plenty of unethical or otherwise wrong-headed actions that should be morally sanctioned but remain legal, Gitlin said. He added that Wikileaks is certainly conducting journalistic activity, and that a prosecution would chill journalistic conduct across the country. This is from the letter:
Any prosecution of Wikileaks staff for receiving, possessing or publishing classified materials will set a dangerous precedent for reporters in any publication or medium, potentially chilling investigative journalism and other First Amendment-protected activity.
As a historical matter, government overreaction to publication of leaked material in the press has always been more damaging to American democracy than the leaks themselves.
The U.S. and the First Amendment continue to set a world standard for freedom of the press, encouraging journalists in many nations to take significant risks on behalf of transparency. Prosecution in the Wikileaks case would greatly damage American standing in free-press debates worldwide and would dishearten those journalists looking to this nation for inspiration.
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More at the link
Idiot.
