The press is once again under scrutiny by the Bush administration in what appear to be flagrant discrepancies from the freedom the American Bill of Rights grants journalists. The Washington Post has revealed that reporters and their sources are being targeted by government investigations of information leaks and ABC News reports that the Pentagon has decided to continue paying Iraqi journalists to print articles favorable of the United States.

The Bush administration has declared that leaks to journalists which have resulted in such stories as the National Security Agency's spying on American citizens and secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe "help the enemy." The Justice Department has decided that journalists "can be prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act for receiving and publishing classified information."

Journalists from the Sacramento Bee have already been confronted by the FBI for having published a story about documents concerning terrorist suspects.

In Iraq, a much criticized program in which the Pentagon pays Iraqi journalists for good press will continue. Commander of US forces, General George Casey said an investigation ""found that we were operating within our authorities and responsibilities."

Sources: The Washington Post, ABC News (found through the European Journalism Centre)