I guess I don't see the problem with this. Prepaid phones (burners) are notoriously used by criminals.
They are also used by investigative journalists trying to uncover government wrongdoing along with people trying to escape abusive ex-lovers.
The desire for anonymity is not synonymous with criminal intent.
GP's point seems to be that it's pointful to avoid association of that phone with any news organization at all in such cases.
I might add, the vast majority of prepaid cell phone use is not criminal use [citation needed]
I'd be willing to wager the vast majority of the use of most things currently being argued (encryption is the hottest one right now) is not criminal.
So you want to force the majority use to give up their privacy and trust every retailer of prepaid phones with their personal information, because of the fringe cases of criminal use?
The fact of the matter is that prepaid phone use (much like encryption) is used by people for pretty banal purposes: they want to make sure that their private life stays private.
Maybe they are carrying on an illicit affair. Maybe they are running a side business their employer wouldn't approve of. Whatever the reason, people have a certain right to privacy.
The burden isn't on US to demonstrate why we need privacy. The burden is on the GOVERNMENT to demonstrate why they need to pull back the curtain on someone else's privacy to further a legitimate government interest. That's the crux of every argument opposing the government keeping records (or forcing the record-keeping by business) on everything a person does in the course of their life.
The VAST majority of prepaid phone use is legitimate and non-controversial. Why burden all of those uses with a specious need to identify themselves when conducting perfectly legal business?
You don't need an ID to buy a hammer or a knife. Why should you need one to buy a phone?
- People who can't afford phone contracts and have minimal usage needs.
- International tourists who don't want to pay roaming charges on their regular phone plans to make local calls while traveling.
Also, why should it be illegal to have an anonymous phone?