NY Times Editor Jill Abramson: Obama Crackdown on Leakers Threatens National Security Journalism

New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson warned at a Columbia University School of Journalism panel that the federal government’s crackdown on leakers has had a “profound effect on journalism.”

Abramson, who covered the Beltway at the Wall Street Journal and later as the Times’ DC bureau chief, noted that there have been seven criminal leak investigations under the Obama Administration, more than twice the number of any previous administration in American history. The threat of legal prosecution has “effectively criminalized” journalism about sensitive national security issues, she argued. “A real freeze is setting in on what had been to this point, I think, a healthy discourse between sources and journalists,” Abramson said. “Journalists are saying, ‘I will go to jail to protect your identity,’” she added. “These words are now being uttered.”