What will it mean if the U.S. government pursues legal action against Wikileaks? The first amendment of the Constitution protects the press, there by giving them the freedom to publish what they want.
In the case of Wikileaks, many are accusing them of espionage, for publishing top-secret documents. Yet the nature of the documents does not warrant conviction of espionage. The nature of the documents published by Wikileaks does not matter; rather the way in which the documents were acquired is the only issue. An example of how Wikileaks would be if they directly stole the documents they published, and then they could be convicted. Yet Wikileaks was given many of the documents from a source, making it legal for them to publish.
So if Wikileaks can’t be prosecuted because the documents are not stolen, then how can they be prosecuted? Well this is a sticky situation for the government to try and pursue. To convict Wikileaks they would have to side step the first amendment and every thing it protects in our nation. So this brings up the question how will this case set the precedence for freedom of press and every thing our country was founded on?
SOURCE:
LINDENBERGER, MICHAEL A. "The U.S.'s Weak Legal Case Against WikiLeaks - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. 09 Dec. 2010. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. <http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2035994,00.html>.
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