International News Media as Collateral Damage

While "the latest target is the New York Times," for reports on a U.S. program tracking international financial records, journalists and media outlets around the world have been criticized -- and prosecuted -- for publishing stories related to the so-called Global War on Terror. "Swiss investigators are looking for the leaker of an intelligence document attesting to the CIA prison network and are weighing criminal charges," reports AP. This fall, "Danish journalists face trial for reporting their government knew there was no evidence of banned weapons in Iraq." It is "the first such prosecution of journalists in Denmark's modern history." In July 2003, British bioweapons expert David Kelly killed himself, after admitting he had told the BBC that Iraq weapons of mass destruction intelligence had been "sexed up." UK reporter Michael Smith was investigated but not charged for reporting on leaked Downing Street memos, which said Iraq intelligence had been "fixed" around war plans. Two Romanian journalists face up to seven years in prison for possessing -- but not reporting on -- classified documents about Romanian military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.