President Donald Trump has said that “the person who wrote the story” to an unidentified media outlet about a missing American fighter jet crew member who was shot down in Iran will “go to jail” if they don’t reveal who provided the information.
President Trump made the remarks during a press conference at the White House on Monday. The president did not mention the news outlet that first reported on the missing crew. The US government wanted to keep the fact that the second airman was missing secret to prevent capture or killing by Iran. After the pilot was rescued on Friday, March 3, American forces located and rescued a second crew member in Iranian territory early Sunday morning.
President Trump spoke about “two extraordinary rescues” of stranded U.S. military personnel. “As you know, we didn’t talk for an hour about the first one. Then somebody leaked something, and hopefully we can find that leaker. We’re looking very hard to find that leaker,” Trump said at a news conference.
The president said the “leaker” was a “sick man” and said “if you don’t tell me” who the source was, “the person who told the story will go to jail.” Trump added: “I think everyone understands that.” “They are putting this mission at great risk.”
“We’re going to go to the media companies that published this information and say, ‘National security, give up or go to jail,'” Trump told reporters.
Reached for comment, the White House Press Office said an investigation into the matter was ongoing, but declined to provide the names of the news organizations that Trump had alluded to.
According to the New York Times, on Friday, April 3, multiple media outlets, including Israel’s N12, Axios, the Washington Post, Reuters, and reporters from The New York Times, reported on the downing of the U.S. fighter jet and the rescue efforts.
Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in a statement about Trump’s comments that news organizations “have a First Amendment right to publish stories about matters of public importance, including stories the government wants to suppress.”
“President Trump’s threats to force journalists to disclose their sources raise serious concerns for press freedom, because journalists’ ability to do their jobs depends in part on their ability to protect the identities of their sources,” Jaffer said. “President Trump’s threats should be understood as an effort to intimidate news organizations and prevent journalists from doing the work they need to do for the public.”
National Press Club President Mark Sheff Jr. also issued a statement regarding President Trump’s threat. “President Trump’s public suggestion that journalists who refuse to disclose confidential sources should be jailed is a direct threat to the First Amendment and the core functions of the free press,” he said. “Governments have a legitimate responsibility to protect classified information, but that responsibility does not extend to punishing journalists for legitimate reporting or forcing them to disclose their sources.”
