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标题：The Resilient Foundation of Democracy: The Legal Deconstruction of the Washington Posts's Condemnation of Edward Snowden
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作者：Kim, Hanna
期刊名称：Indiana Law Journal
印刷版ISSN：0019-6665
出版年度：2018
卷号：93
期号：2
页码：8
出版社：Maurer School of Law: Indiana University
摘要：On September 17, 2016, The Washington Post (“the Post”) made history by being the first paper to ever call for the criminal prosecution of its own source —Edward Snowden. Yet, two years prior to this editorial, the Post accepted the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for its “revelation of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency”—an honor which would not have been bestowed had Snowden not leaked the documents through this news outlet. The other three major media outlets that received and published Snowden’s documents and findings—The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Intercept—all have taken the opposite approach and stood by their source, calling for Snowden’s pardon. The unprecedented actions of the Post raise questions regarding the responsibilities of news outlets under the Espionage Act, the effect of selfimplication when condemning one’s own source, and the extent of public policy exceptions afforded to journalists. Constitutional law has set a precedent for protecting journalists, and subsequently media organizations, although decisions to this effect may at times be difficult for the Court to make. For example, the Court’s findings and concurring opinions in the Pentagon Papers Case state that any action that resembles prior restraint bears a “heavy presumption against its constitutional validity.” Specifically, Justice Black stated in his concurring opinion that “the word ‘security’ is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment. The guarding of military and diplomatic secrets at the expense of informed representative government provides no real security for our Republic.” These types of protections have allowed media organizations to both take on controversial topics and to support their source, as was evident during the Pentagon Papers controversy when the New York Times refused to discuss whether Daniel Ellsberg was their source. Despite this history of protection by the Court—the Post decided to support the idea of criminal punishment and stated that it “might be a bargain . . . [if] Mr. Snowden accepts a measure of criminal responsibility for his excesses and the U.S. Government offers a measure of leniency.” The Post claims that the only program that was justifiably exposed was the domestic metadata program—because it was “a stretch, if not an outright violation, of federal surveillance law”—and that there was no public interest in exposing the NSA Internet-monitoring program, PRISM. Notwithstanding PRISM’s lack of public value, the Post reported
关键词：democracy; Washington Post; Edward Snowden; criminal prosecution; Pulitzer Prize; Public Service; National Security Agency; The Guardian; The New York Times; The Intercept; pardon; Espionage Act; self-implication; constitutional law; journalism; journalists; media organizations; Pentagon Papers Case; security; first amendment; Republic; NSA; PRISM