Regarding “whether WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange is a journalist, or can be prosecuted for espionage...”
Turns out there are different kinds of legal protections for journalists—shield laws, for instance, which protect a journalist from having to reveal an anonymous source—which don’t apply to “non-journalists”, whatever that might be in a world with twitter, blogs, etc. A private citizen emailing secret documents to someone without proper clearance can be prosecuted for it; a journalist publishing classified documents that were passed to her cannot be prosecuted.
So the question should be something more like, “Should Julian Assange be afforded the same legal protections as a journalist, or is he something other than that, to which such protections do not apply.”
A private citizen emailing secret documents to someone without proper clearance can be prosecuted for it; a journalist publishing classified documents that were passed to her cannot be prosecuted.
No, shield laws, both existing and proposed, are only about sources and offer no protection for publishing classified information. They might offer protection from admitting that you have classified information. Also, most classified information is at the federal level and there isn’t a federal shield law, so this is all hypothetical.
Regarding “whether WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange is a journalist, or can be prosecuted for espionage...”
Turns out there are different kinds of legal protections for journalists—shield laws, for instance, which protect a journalist from having to reveal an anonymous source—which don’t apply to “non-journalists”, whatever that might be in a world with twitter, blogs, etc. A private citizen emailing secret documents to someone without proper clearance can be prosecuted for it; a journalist publishing classified documents that were passed to her cannot be prosecuted.
So the question should be something more like, “Should Julian Assange be afforded the same legal protections as a journalist, or is he something other than that, to which such protections do not apply.”
No, shield laws, both existing and proposed, are only about sources and offer no protection for publishing classified information. They might offer protection from admitting that you have classified information. Also, most classified information is at the federal level and there isn’t a federal shield law, so this is all hypothetical.