Fox Reporter James Rosen Called ‘Co-Conspirator,’ Targeted Like AP Scandal

Fox News reporters James is being called a “co-conspirator” by the Justice Department, which is issuing search warrants while investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the Obama Justice Department secretly accessed two months of telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors according to AP lawyers.

The case began when Fox reporter James Rosen reported intelligence officials warning that North Korea was likely to respond to United Nations sanctions with more nuclear tests. The information allegedly came from Stephen Jin-Woo Kim before many in the State Department even knew of the report.

This AP scandal is already being compared to Fox News reporter James Rosen, who had his telephone calls, State Department visits, and emails seized and scrutinized by the Justice department. Because they suspect State Department security adviser Stephen Jin-Woo Kim of sharing a classified report, they obtained a search warrant for the Fox reporter’s personal emails.

First Amendment lawyer Charles Tobin, who has represented the Associated Press in the past, explains how the Justice department targeting Fox reporter James Rosen affects the free press:

“Search warrants like these have a severe chilling effect on the free flow of important information to the public. That’s a very dangerous road to go down.”

The Justice Department charged Stephen Jin-Woo Kim with violating the Espionage Act for his contact with James Rosen. But then the Justice department went one step further, calling Fox reporter James Rosen a “co-conspirator”:

“Reyes wrote that there was evidence Rosen had broken the law, ‘at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.’ That fact distinguishes his case from the probe of the AP, in which the news organization is not the likely target.”

Fox News is already defending James Rosen against the Justice department:

“We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter. In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press.”

What do you do you think about the Justice department targeting Fox reporter James Rosen?

Serious idea. Instead of calling it Obama's war on whistleblowers, let's just call it what it is: Obama's war on journalism.

— Eli Lake (@EliLake) May 20, 2013

http://twitter.com/ggreenwald/statuses/336465156030734337