Plugging the leaks

The public didn't need the product of leaked classified documents to know about that. The northeast Asian nuclear arms race and Japan’s capabilities have been in the overt media for many years, in the Wikipedia and on my website ("Japan's Potential ICBMs & Hoarding More Plutonium", April 29, 2008).

What aggrieved party or valid cause is "Revealed: our spy targets" representing?

Newspapers create news to sell newspapers and advertising space. They are an important public protector but they are also a business. In this case the searching of a journalist's house has become news in itself.

This matter has aroused concern about press freedom but it also sells newspapers.

Tens of thousands of highly classified documents circulate among thousands of government employee's each year. Just because a newspaper manages to intercept several of those documents doesn't give a newspaper the right to regurgitate its contents publicly. The motto seems to be "having documents in hand justifies publication".

A potential problem is that if a leak and publication is allowed to occur this will encourage other officials or political staffers to leak documents. Creating a culture of leaking could, down the track, endanger the lives of sources of some classified documents.

The protecting human rights justification that could be used by a journalist may, in fact, endanger the life of a classified source.

I feel for the journalist having to endure a five-hour search of his house and car. It started at 8.30am and they took his laptop and some other items. However, I understand that a headline and even a court case can help a journalist's career.