This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

International press freedom watchdogs have criticised the gag order imposed on the jailed US activist-journalist Barrett Brown.

He and his legal team are prevented from talking to the media about the prosecution that could result in him being sentenced to a 100-year jail term for alleged offences relating to his work in exposing online surveillance.

The gag order, imposed by a Texas court at the request of the US government, is viewed as the latest in a succession of moves by the Obama administration to inhibit investigative journalism and prevent leaks of official information.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says it is "deeply troubled" by the order, which is aimed at stifling public debate and might compromise coverage of Brown's trial.

But the watchdog adds that "it seems that restrictions on this trial have in fact increased public support and attention."

It contends that the gag restricts Brown's first amendment rights in addition to restricting the public's right to information about the trial.

Brown was arrested on 12 September and has been in custody ever since. The main charge against him is for disseminating stolen information relating to internal emails from a private intelligence firm that had been hacked by a third party. His trial is not set to begin before April 2014.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) carries a piece by its internet advocacy coordinator, Geoffrey King, in which he points to the "particularly troublesome" charge against Brown of posting a hyperlink to a file available on the internet to a chat room he had set up to crowdsource information about the intelligence contracting industry. He writes:

"Journalists frequently crowdsource… Sometimes the data has been obtained lawfully and sometimes it has not. By the US government's theory, journalists can be held criminally liable merely for linking to a publicly-available file that contains sensitive information, whether or not they had any part in actually obtaining the data in the first place. This theory threatens the nature of the web, as well as the ethical duty of journalists to verify and report the truth."

King argues that the jail threat to Brown "sends an ominous message to journalists who wish to act responsibly by substantiating their reporting."

He also believes that the gag order is "antithetical to a free press and… will have far-reaching consequences beyond the limited bounds of Brown's case."

Sources: CPJ/RSF/The Guardian