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Threat of prosecution could be taken too far Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service | May 25 2006 The following editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Wednesday, May 24: X X X Attorney General Al Gonzales raised the possibility over the weekend that New York Times journalists could be prosecuted for publishing classified information about the National Security Agency's surveillance of telephone calls. Let's be clear. Journalists shouldn't be immune from prosecution if legitimate wrongdoing threatens national security. Instead, our concern about Gonzales' statement is whether the government ever would use the threat of prosecution to deter journalists from doing their jobs. Journalists often ask questions that make it more difficult for government to deep-six embarrassing, controversial or even illegal activities from public scrutiny. It's an important role, one this country's founders considered so crucial that they wrote it into the Constitution. But given the federal government's penchant for classifying information in the name of national security and in broadening the interpretation of the scope of executive power, the idea that the press might be a prosecution target is not a far-fetched worry. For now, we'll take Gonzales at his word that he understands "very much the role that the press plays in our society, the protection under the First Amendment." Consider what happened just last year, when special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's high-pressure tactics sent reporter Judith Miller to jail for failing to disclose information to a grand jury investigating the outing of CIA employee Valerie Plame. We took issue with that tactic. But last fall, as he discussed grand jury charges against former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald said prosecutors need to make "fine distinctions about what people knew, why they knew it, what they exactly said, why they said it, what they were trying to do, what appreciation they had for the information and whether it was classified at the time." He's right. And that statement applies to journalists as well. All of us stand to benefit by observing the delicate balance of preserving this nation's safety without undercutting the media's obligation to challenge government authority on behalf of other Americans. ---------------------------------------------------
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