By SOPHIE HOOVER/Murphy News Service

The United State’s’ war on terror since 9-11 has not been without a considerable downside for journalists trying to cover the government’s activities.

That was the crux of the message delivered earlier this week by New York Times reporter James Risen during the 30th annual lecture held by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s (SJMC) Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law.

Risen is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who is known for his hard-hitting investigative journalism. He appeared with Joel Kurtzberg, a First Amendment attorney who represented Risen in a seven-year legal battle against the U.S. government over the protection of confidential sources. The conversation was moderated by Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center and professor in the SJMC.

In Risen’s book “State of War,” written in 2006, he described details of the failed operation in Iran with the code name  “Merlin.” Its goal was to give a flawed nuclear weapon design to Iran to disrupt the country’s nuclear program. Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer, was accused of leaking the information to Risen even though it was deemed classified.

Sterling was tried and later convicted under the federal Espionage Act. Risen was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in 2008 to testify and identify his source, which the government contended was crucial to getting a conviction in Sterling’s case, but Risen repeatedly refused. That led to court actions across two presidential administrations that eventually ended with the subpoena against Risen being dropped in January of this year.

Risen started off the conversation by explaining his treatment from the government in the case and then what it means in context of First Amendment rights and source protection. A self-described “First Amendment purist,” he noted that the past two presidents have made reporters’ jobs difficult by over-classifying information and having little regard for the infringement of First Amendment rights.

“The war on terror is the only war that is entirely classified,” he said. “We need the press as a check on government because … there is a tremendous problem with over-classification.”

Rison was referring primarily to the government’s number of derivative classifications or reinstatement of expiring classification statuses. A report written in 2014 by the Information Security Oversight Office says there were nine times more derivative classifications in 2014 than there were in 2001. Derivative classifications, for instance  can, among any number of actions, involve rewording classified material or presenting it in new or altered forms.

Risen said he had greater difficulty after 9/11 in getting any sort of information. Even once-available sources are now, in his opinion, afraid to talk to reporters.

There has recently been a large increase in legal cases over leaked information since 2001. A New York Times article said, “The Justice Department [during the Obama administration] has brought more charges in leak cases than were brought in all previous administrations combined.”

When asked what he thought about the future of journalism, Risen said that he was more optimistic than he was five years ago. 

“You have to be a rebel,” Risen said.

“And that means challenging authority?” Kirtley asked.

“Yes,” he said.

Reporter Sophie Hoover is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.