Journalist Who Covered Stratfor Hack Sentenced to 63 Months in Prison

Brown said the “novel, and sometimes even radical” claims the government made during his sentencing threatens “every journalist in the United States.”

“The government asserts that I am not a journalist and thus unable to claim the First Amendment protections guaranteed to those engaged in information-gathering activities,” he said in a statement to the court. “Your Honor, I’ve been employed as a journalist for much of my adult life, I’ve written for dozens of magazines and newspapers, and I’m the author of two published and critically-acclaimed books of expository non-fiction.”

“If I am not a journalist, then there are many, many people out there who are also not journalists, without being aware of it, and who are thus as much at risk as I am.”

FK – The First Amendment doesn’t say anything about a ‘press pass.’