Journalists should not be prosecuted for publishing state secrets that are leaked in the public interest.

Israeli reporter Uri Blau has avoided jail through a plea bargain. Uri Blau has admitted to possessing classified Israeli Defence Forces documents including secret intelligence but as part of the admission it is accepted that his intent was not to harm Israeli national security. Uri Blau is the reporter, working for Haaretz, who was given military documents by Anat Kamm, a conscript who was working in Israel’s Central Command, and published a number of articles based on them. Kamm herself has already been sentenced to 54 months in prison. The case is particularly worrying as an attempt by the Israeli state to suppress the press and its freedoms. The things that Kamm and Blau revealed included Israeli security forces having  killed two Palestinian militants in contravention of a Israeli Supreme Court ruling on such assassinations – therefore a piece of journalism that was pretty squarely in the public interest. The Jerusalem Journalists Association said in response to the plea bargain “It would have been preferable if this case would have ended in the withdrawal of the indictments and the regulation of the matter in order to allow journalists to do their job without fear. The outcome of the plea bargain will hurt the public for which the journalists work for."

Debatabase debate: This House believes that the leaking of military documents by Anat Kamm was justified http://idebate.org/debatabase/debates/free-speech-debate/house-believes-leaking-military-documents-anat-kamm-was-justified

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/05/israeli-reporter-military-secrets-jail

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/haaretz-journalist-uri-blau-to-admit-to-holding-secret-idf-info-in-plea-bargain-1.449029