Where Freedom of the Press Is Muffled

While it was heartening to see the White House at the forefront of the effort to ensure an unfettered press in China this past week, government officials in Britain, a supposedly advanced democracy and the United States’ closest ally, might do well to consider Vice President Joe Biden’s words. (Some of his colleagues in the Justice Department, which has ferociously prosecuted leakers, might take heed as well, but that’s a matter for a different day.)

“Innovation thrives where people breathe freely, speak freely, are able to challenge orthodoxy, where newspapers can report the truth without fear of consequences,” he said. Two days before VP Biden made his comments, Alan Rusbridger, the editor in chief of The Guardian, a British newspaper, was compelled to appear before a parliamentary committee to be questioned about the newspaper’s coverage of national security material leaked by Edward J. Snowden. Rather than asking Rusbridger how a 30-year-old in Hawaii not directly employed by the government had access to so many vital secrets, the committee sought to intimidate and raised the question of whether The Guardian, in sharing the Snowden leaks with other news organizations, might have engaged in criminal activity.