WH defends press freedoms under Obama

White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Wednesday defended the administration from criticism by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James Risen that it is the “greatest enemy of press freedom” in decades.

{mosads}“Over the last couple of years, you’ve seen the attorney general in particular take some very important steps to try to make sure this administration was striking the right balance between a law enforcement’s need to protect national security and to respect the freedom of the press, a freedom that the president believes is critically important to the success of our country,” Earnest said.

After a speech by Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday, Risen tweeted a string of messages slamming the White House.

“The Obama Administration is the greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation,” he tweeted.

“I plan to spend the rest of my life fighting to undo damage done to press freedom in the United States by Barack Obama and Eric Holder.”

Until this year, Risen had been locked in a long battle with the administration over whether he had to testify in the leak case over a former CIA agent prosecutors say leaked Risen material for his award-winning book. Risen had been facing jail time for refusing to testify, but the Justice Department said in January he wouldn’t have to take the stand.

Earnest said that Holder has been meeting with various journalists about how to strike a balance and that the results have been “very positive.” He pointed to a January statement from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press about the Justice Department’s new guidelines for subpoenaing reporters that said the relationship between the administration and journalists hopefully reflects that “we’ve turned a corner.”