In an interview with DemocracyNow, Julian Assange described how the Collateral Murder video had been redacted from his presentation at Oxford-Union.

This is the first in a series of fact-checks on We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks by Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney. It is the “first” of my fact-checks because there are so many distortions and inaccuracies in this film, it is difficult to know where to begin. Luckily, the title itself provides a good place to start.

The Justice Department’s seizure of the Associated Press’ phone records, along with criminalizing Fox News reporter James Rosen to pursue a leak investigation into a former State Department contractor, has led to media organizations making some of the most clear defenses of freedom of the press to date. It has inspired a healthy amount of disdain for the administration of President Barack Obama relationship with the press and how the administration’s zealous pursuit of leaks has had a chilling effect on investigative journalism.

Attorney General Eric Holder has claimed he has never been involved in the “potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material,” but the Justice Department under President Barack Obama has been more than willing to criminalize the press in order to enable or enhance the ability of the department to pursue leak investigations.

The following is a response I received from Alex Gibney, director of the new documentary on WikiLeaks, “We Steal Secrets.” I have not added any comments to this response. It appears unedited as a kind of rebuttal to my review.

I will also take the time to note that, despite my strong criticisms, it is worth it to view the film. While it may inform the public of what exactly Gibney arguues, claims and explores, no transcript of narration or interview segments can fully communicate how the stories of Bradley Manning and Julian Assange are presented in the film. One has to see the clips, hear the music, watch how it all is edited, etc, to fully appreciate the power of this movie.

Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney held a special screening for his new documentary, We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, in Washington, DC, on May 21. Gibney also participated in a question and answer session after the film that was moderated by POLITICO‘s Josh Gerstein.

The government had previously indicated it would present all evidence related to all charges, regardless of the fact that Pfc. Bradley Manning pled guilty to some of the offenses he faced. But, in military court today, a military prosecutor informed the judge that the government would not be making a case that Manning committed the greater offense alleged in relation to the disclosure of a diplomatic cable from the US embassy in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The new head of the CIA National Clandestine Service, Francis “Frank” Archibald, is listed in the Wikileaks Cables as authoring a confidential report from the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan regarding the naming of the embassy legal attache in a detainee torture case. Archibald discloses his involvement in communicating with other U.S. officials regarding public statements and press reports concerning the case. Archibald was under cover as an official of the U.S. State Department at the time.

A final pretrial hearing in the court martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning is being held today at Fort Meade in Maryland. Decisions on how to handle testimony from classified witnesses during the trial, which begins on June 3, are expected.

The extent of the administration of President Barack Obama’s attacks on the First Amendment has been confirmed to include having the Justice Department pursue a Fox News journalist as a “co-conspirator” in a leak investigation.

The investigation involves Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a State Department employee, who has been under investigation for possibly leaking classified information on North Korea to Fox News reporter James Rosen.