We have discussed that the media, at least in the United States, presides over an undeniable, constitutional right vested in the First Amendment to report freely, without government’s involvement and restriction, on any political news it deems worthy of public concern. After I read the article in The Huffington Post about James Rosin from the New York Times, I realized there are some restrictions to media’s freedom of speech after all.
In his book "The State of War" that James Rosin published in 2006 he talked about CIA's covert mission called “Operation Merlin” in Iran in which a Russian nuclear scientist and a defector was sent to provide Iranians with a nuclear device that had a flaw in its design in an effort to disrupt their nuclear weapon research and prevent them from building an atomic bomb. This mission ended up only improving Iranian’s expertise because the Russian nuclear specialist defected by revealing the built in flaw to Iranians. Based on the information that Rosin wrote about in his book, an article he wrote about the CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling in 2002 and the fact that Sterling was the man in charge during that assignment in Iran the federal officials investigated and charged Jeffrey Sterling for leaking classified information to James Rosin in 2010. The indictment suggested that the government obtained personal records such as credit and bank account reports, monitored James Rosin’s airline travel information and phone calls, and searched his contacts and e-mails just to find out whether he was the one that Sterling leaked the confidential political information to about the government’s spying mission in Iran. The blog Politico confirms that the reporter was heavily investigated by federal officials to make their case against Sterling stronger and Mr. Risen told the website that he felt like a victim in a spying investigation. It is not yet known how the federal investigators got hold of personal data on James Rosin and some speculate that the information could have been obtained through Jeffrey Sterling’s own records but based on the information I gathered from different sources I it is evident that the government was spying on the reporter because how else would they be able to get his travel information and personal credit reports from Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, certainly not through Sterling. According to James Risen’s lawyer, these reports were turned in by the government in a court filing.
It seems that if the media goes ahead and reports a little more than the government wants to reveal about politics, the reporters can be subpoenaed and interrogated about where they get their sources from. This to me is an invasion of an individual’s privacy and a violation of the Third Amendment in the Bill of Rights that protects citizens from such searches and intrusion by the government and it also violates against the valued Freedom of Press we discussed in class. Yes, one could argue that the search the government conducted was warranted because it concerned classified information but the question really remains, how classified is this information that government stubbornly denies? I searched the internet and have not found any documents or reports that explains how classified this information is and whether it threatens the well being of the national security once made public. It seems to me that the common people would be left in the dark if it was not for individuals such as Sterling and Rosen to reveal governments secret activity from time to time because the government conducts these secret missions abroad that could enrage Iranians until they backfire and we would not even know why because we are only informed about the diplomatic attempts the US conducts in an attempt to make Iran stop its nuclear research.
Obviously the government is trying to make a precedent that will discourage other federal officials from leaking confidential information to the media and this I interpret as an attempt by the government to control media’s access to governments hidden political intentions and activity. On the other hand, being that the book was already published and is available for the people to read shows that media can after all report freely to some extent even if it is at the expense of their privacy being invaded by the government. The fact that James Rosen was able to keep his sources to himself proves that the media does posses certain rights but this case will I am sure discourage other reporters who are less courageous to report on such government scandals and I think this is exactly the goal that government wants to achieve.
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ReplyDeleteI find this article very interesting for the mere fact I did not know the U.S even sent a Russian nuclear scientist to give the Iranians wrong information in their quest for nuclear ambitions. However, I do disagree with you. I think the government had every right to get information on Rosen. He had no business leaking classified information. If every government action was made available to the public, the government's ability to perform its task at hand to strengthen the security of this nation will be gravely endangered. The public has a right to know certain information absolutely; this right to know information should be uphold to the highest degree on domestic affairs. As far as international affairs, I think its best that the public doesn't know certain information because public opinion at times isn't whats always best.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to tell whether or not the government was violating Risen's Third Amendment Rights. When it involves the well-being of the country (directly or indirectly in the future), the government has leeway in their investigations. Although it was Risen's personal information it was intertwined with information that had to do with private governmental affairs that could potentially be dangerous, so i agree with Rawn. There are some things that the public should not know at certain times and like you mentioned, now the book is available for the world to consume, but was it the right time for that information to be exposed by Risen in the media?
ReplyDeleteSure we are told that there is freedom of speech,and as citizens we are proud to say that we have that but it doesn't mean that we can actually say what we want.It is same as the cause of the famous supreme court case that said you cannot yell "fire" in a theater or run into your neighborhood in the middle and the night and yell really loud(I am pretty sure that's disturbing the peace).Therefore I think the country or government had every right to seize any one or anything that may have any threat to the nation.
ReplyDeleteI admire how passionate and informative you are in this blog. I'd say anything concerning weapons of mass destruction should be cause for a national security risk. However, we know the government has tons of things going on that the public never finds out about, until after the fact, or like this case, until leaked. I agree with you to some extent that if not for instances like this, how would we know about these secrets, but, as Rawn and Nathalia state, perhaps it really isn't for our own good. It seems to be that there is a double standard when it comes to these issues. You can leak as much information as you want about let's say, a senator or governor and his/her marital affairs, but once you go for the more important issues, you know, the real "cover-ups", you better be ready to face the consequences. With that being said, it's a shame what's going on with Rosin, but as a journalist, he should've been aware what he was getting himself into, leaking a story of such caliber.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for commenting. I have to say though, nothing that was revealed in Rosin's book seems to be as "classified" information or that it could threaten security of our nation. All these leaks reveal is that government that imposes rules on us also conducts shady business and it just looks bad when the public knows about it and makes those in power looks less legit. The government already has diplomatic talks with Iran and tries to find common ground on nuclear research which is openly conducted but that they go behind close doors and try to sneak in defected nuclear devices just sounds odd to me. We do everything right, its the rest of the world that is wrong yet we were the ones dropping the bomb initially but the others are not sane enough to be allowed to pursue nuclear studies. That's some justice!
ReplyDeleteYou do very well here at conveying both important information and your own views and commentary on the story. It is also great that you continued the discussion of these issues in the comments with your fellow group members. Nice use of visuals in the blog as well. Just a few things to note: there are some VERY long sentences here that you will want to break up to make your blog more reader-friendly (as an example, the one that starts "It seems to me that the common people..."). Also, the 3rd Amendment is about the quartering of soldiers, so I think there may be some confusion there. Finally, you may be interested in the Wikileaks case which we will discuss later in the semester because it raises many similar issues.
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