A reporter's right to protect confidential sources, a topic of debate both in the U.S. and internationally, will undergo another round of legal scrutiny after federal prosecutors formally appealed a decision shielding journalist James Risen's sources in a CIA leak case.
Press freedom advocates hailed the U.S. District Court judge's ruling in July that Risen did not have to identify his sources during the trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling for disclosing classified information, calling it a landmark First Amendment decision. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors appealed the ruling, according to news reports.
In his 2006 book State of War, Risen, who is also a national security reporter for The New York Times, described a botched, top-secret CIA operation to sabotage Iran's alleged nuclear program. The federal government has sought to compel Risen to reveal his source for his information multiple times in conjunction with its criminal case against Sterling. Risen, invoking his First Amendment rights, has fought three subpoenas of his testimony since
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