> It's very ironic that people justify imprisoning Assange for doing something for which only journalists are protected but when it comes to acts nobody is protected from (like the ones exposed by Assange) it's all crickets.
what do you mean by this? I'm not aware of any special protections for journalists. I'm not a journalist myself, but if I understand correctly, it would not be illegal for me to publish classified material if I received it second hand, since I don't myself have clearance or an obligation to protect the material. if I offered any kind of assistance to get more material, I would be headed into dangerous water. is this not correct?
Around the world journalists do enjoy some protections that a regular person would not have. Those are unfortunately being eroded by new laws focusing more on punishing anyone bringing crimes to the public's attention, rather than punishing those responsible for the crimes being exposed in the first place.
Similarly, a whistleblower would normally have more protections than someone simply stealing company secrets. Another area where the focus is on stamping out any kind of leaks instead of addressing the target of those leaks.
thank you for the links, I never knew about that. although it seems that (in the US) the journalist is only protected from being compelled to reveal their source(s), not from prosecution for any crime they committed themselves.
as an aside, I'm not sure it's appropriate for a reporter to have any statutory privileges over an ordinary citizen, especially under something so fundamental as the first amendment. if it's appropriate for a journalist, it should be granted to the rest of us as well.
what do you mean by this? I'm not aware of any special protections for journalists. I'm not a journalist myself, but if I understand correctly, it would not be illegal for me to publish classified material if I received it second hand, since I don't myself have clearance or an obligation to protect the material. if I offered any kind of assistance to get more material, I would be headed into dangerous water. is this not correct?