The Bradley Manning verdict is still bad news for the press
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/30/the-bradley-manning-verdict-is-still-bad-news-for-the-press/
Dan Gillmor: The Obama administrations war on leaks and, by extension, the work of investigative reporters, has been unrelenting
The American journalism trade is breathing a collective but premature and, in many cases, grossly hypocritical sigh of relief today. A military judge has found Bradley Manning guilty of many crimes, but aiding the enemy isnt one of them.
Had the judge found Manning guilty of aiding the enemy, she would have set a terrible precedent. For the first time, an American court albeit a military court would have said it was a potentially capital crime simply to give information to a news organization, because in the internet era an enemy would ultimately have been able to read what was leaked.
However, if journalism dodged one figurative bullet, it faces many more in this era. The ever-more-essential field of national security journalism was already endangered. It remains so. The Obama administrations war on leaks and, by extension, the work of investigative reporters who dare to challenge the most secretive government in our lifetimes, has been unrelenting.