Journalists Acquitted in Iraq WMD CaseBy JAN M. OLSEN
The Associated Press
Monday, December 4, 2006; 6:42 PM
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Three Danish journalists who published classified intelligence
reports on Iraq's former weapons program were acquitted Monday on charges of endangering
national security.
The Copenhagen City Court ruled that Niels Lunde, chief editor of the Berlingske Tidende
newspaper, and reporters Michael Bjerre and Jesper Larsen acted in the public interest
when they published a series of articles in 2004 citing leaked Danish intelligence reports.
The articles said there was no evidence Iraq had weapons of mass destruction at the time
of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, one of the key reasons cited by the U.S. and Britain
for going to war.
A former intelligence officer previously has been sentenced to four months in prison for
leaking the documents in the case, which was viewed in Denmark as a landmark test of
media freedom.
-snip- Full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120400992.html