Barrett Brown—whose reporting shed light on the too-cozy relationship between private security firms, lobbyists, and the US government—faces up to 105 years in prison. His biggest crime? Pasting a link, in a chat room, to documents that were leaked by Anonymous to WikiLeaks.

Now the court has issued a gag order forbidding him or his lawyers from talking about his case to the media—making all too clear their purpose from the beginning: to silence journalists.

Sign to the right demand the Justice Department preserve the First Amendment and drop their charges against Barrett Brown.  Click here to donate to his defense.

Brown did what all journalists do on a daily basis—shared a hyperlink to a set of documents readily available online.  This case could criminalize completely normal and necessary journalistic practices and severely endanger the First Amendment.

Barrett Brown's intrepid journalism helped shed light on a shadowy underworld of corporate espionage, and a meticulously engineered smear campaign against anti-corporate activists, defenders of WikiLeaks, and liberal journalists like Glenn Greenwald.

On the anniversary of Barrett Brown’s arrest, those of us who still believe in the power and importance of journalists and whistleblowers to check the (often abusive) power of our government MUST make our voices heard.

Sign in support of Barrett Brown, and join the fight against government censorship and suppression.  Donate to his defense by clicking here.

Brown is merely the latest victim in the administration’s ongoing war against investigative journalism, whistleblowers, and those who would expose the unflattering, undemocratic, and often criminal activities of the US government and its corporate allies.

Join us in condemning this administration’s war on journalists—and their war on truth.

Thank you,

Demand Progress Team

For more about Barrett Brown's case, see David Carr's piece in the NYTimes.