At first glance, the Law Commission's review of the legislation that covers espionage and the protection of state secrets looks like a sensible exercise. Many of the laws concerned are old, dating back to the early 20th Century and a time before email and mobile telephones, the internet and the almost-limitless and instantaneous exchange of information that characterises our age.

In this Information Age, it is obviously wise to protect legitimate state secrets from foreign powers and their agents with appropriate laws and penalties. Yet the Law Commission appears to be considering doing something else too: criminalising journalism. The commission is considering a new offensive of espionage - subject to lengthy jail terms - that could be committed not just by someone who discloses secret information but, crucially, by a person who obtains it. There would be "no restriction on who can commit the offence," the commission proposes.

This may sound innocuous but is in fact outrageous, nothing less than a threat to Britain's free press and thus its democracy.

For if it is possible for people who obtain secret official information to be charged with a crime, journalists would be exposed to prosecution simply for doing their job.