How journalists and sources are being stifled

In a comprehensive analysis of the various news leaks across the world about Iraq and the "war on terror", an Associated Press correspondent, Charles J. Hanley, reveals the sharp response against media from governments, which have used a combination of pressure and prosecutions to stifle the revelations. The latest example is the assault on the New York Times over its banking surveillance story. But the trend began in 2003, he writes, when British weapons expert David Kelly was "outed" as a source. He also mentions the coming trial of two Britons, David Keogh and Leo O'Connor, who allegedly leaked a classified memo about a meeting at which Tony Blair was said to have argued against President Bush's suggestion that al-Jazeera's headquarters in Qatar should be bombed. (Via Boston.com / News)