The Supreme Court addressed this in New York Times vs. United States (1973), when the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers, which were classified, and w

The Supreme Court addressed this in New York Times vs. United States (1973), when the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers, which were classified, and which the government argued must remain secret in order to protect the national security. The court ruled that in order to restrict freedom of the press, the government "carries a heavy burden of showing justification for the imposition of such a restraint." The court further ruled that freedom of the press can only be restrained if there is clear, serious, immediate harm that would result directly from the publication of the material. Speculative arguments about what could happen are not sufficient to block publication. Justice Hugo Black's argument is really quite beautiful: "The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell." Remember what publications we're talking about here. These were documents detailing a war that the US and British governments entered into under false pretenses, and which they continued to lie to the public about. The public was served by knowing this information, and trying to put the people who published it behind bars, and treating them as if they were spies, is disgusting.