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Crimes in the public interest
By Steven | February 14, 2008
A quick note on recent stouch about the journalist who took a knife and toy gun on a regional flight to demonstrate lax security. (Bonus gossip: it was Jonathan Marshall, who was behind a hideously intrusive celebrity expose website, but has since taken a journalism course and is doing serious work).
I say: give that man a badge.
There are times when journalists commit crimes in the public interest. This, I think, was one. (Other journalists have done the same thing in Britain). I also think it’s in the public interest for journalists to occasionally try to obtain passports and credit cards using fake names to expose how easily it can be done, or likewise gather personal data about people or hack important websites. The receipt of leaks of stolen documents or tapes can also raise criminal issues. Journalists have no special defence if they are prosecuted for these crimes.
Usually, as it happens, they are not prosecuted. Under the prosecution guidelines, the public interest is a factor in deciding whether to charge. And any sentence would probably be adjusted down. But that’s an uneasy truce.
Sure, it’s difficult for the law to carve out exceptions to the criminal law for journalists. And sure, if the law did so, there would be journalists who would abuse their special rights. So the truce may be as good as it gets. But under the incentives of the law, it would be prudent for journalists not to take these sorts of risks, even though such stories are very valuable to society. I wonder whether the development of some sort of public interest defence may be needed – or even required under the Bill of Rights Act?
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