A FAIR Solution for Whistleblowers

In a media advisory issued today, the media watch group, FAIR, called for journalists subpoenaed in the Valerie Plame and Wen Ho Lee cases to reveal the identities of their confidential sources. “Protecting the identities of confidential sources is a journalistic right that should be recognized by the courts,” FAIR admits, “but only when it protects genuine whistle-blowers, not when it shields government wrongdoing.”

FAIR offers a compelling argument that, “the motive and effect of government leaks are the critical questions, and courts can and should make a distinction between legitimate whistleblowing and illegitimate governmental attempts to use information as a weapon.”
Indeed, government agencies frequently use information (and misinformation) to attack whistleblowers and discourage investigation into government abuses.

FAIR concludes, “The First Amendment exists so that the press can be a check on government abuse of power, not a handmaiden to it.”

9/11 whistleblower reports activist rights threatened

September 11 whistleblower and FBI attorney Coleen Rowley has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether agency bulletins may have violated the First Amendment, reports Peter Shinkle, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ("FBI official questioned propriety of warnings issued about protest," August 18). While admitting the absence of any evidence, the bulletins claimed that activist groups were planning “violent or terrorist activities” at protest rallies.

Rowley's request was reviewed by the Justice Department Inspector General’s office, which concluded, in an April 4 opinion, that the bulletins did not violate the First Amendment. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are now calling for a probe of seemingly "systematic political harassment and intimidation of legitimate anti-war protesters."

In 1992, Ms. Rowley courageously testified before Congress about the failure of her office to permit investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, currently charged with crimes related to the Sept. 11 attacks.