A report released on Thursday reveals that the agressive "prosecution of leaks and efforts to control information" by the Obama administration is having a chilling effect on journalism. 

The report was authored by Leonard Downie Jr., formerly the executive editor of the Washington Post, and titled "The Obama Administration and the Press."  It accuses Obama of coming into office with the promise of transparency but that he has "fallen short of his promise."

"In the Obama administration's Washington, government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press," wrote Downie, now a journalism professor at Arizona State University. "The administration's war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I've seen since the Nixon administration, when I was one of the editors involved in The Washington Post's investigation of Watergate."

In order to control their messaging and agenda, the WH has developed its own network of social media and websites and an online newscast. "In some cases, the White House produces videos of the president's meetings with major figures that were never listed on his public schedule. Instead, they were kept secret — a departure from past administrations, the report noted."

So far, the Obama administration has "targeted for prosecution" six government employees and two contractors under the 1917 espionage act. As a point of comparison, only three people have been prosectuted under all previous US presidents.