No First Amendment rights in Military Courts?

Mark Walker:

There is no First Amendment protection for journalists in the military justice system and thus CBS should hand over all its material from an interview with a Marine who led his men in the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians, a prosecutor is asserting.

The prosecutor, Marine Capt. Nicholas Gannon, wants the judge presiding over the manslaughter case of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich to order the network to hand over unaired portions of its 2007 "60 Minutes" interview with Wuterich.

Gannon argued that because there is no case law that extends newsgathering protections to journalists in military court matters, the unaired portions and anything else Wuterich said or did off camera should be disclosed.

"The question is unresolved on reporter privilege and it's not for this court to decide," Gannon told the judge, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, during a court hearing Wednesday.

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Whether or not CBS has to produce the out takes maybe an open question, but I think the prosecutor has made a broad assertion about the First Amendment that is not supportable. This is an argument in the Haditha case and it highlights the weakness of the evidence of the prosecution that they think they need these out takes to get a conviction against Sgt. Wuterich.