Freedom of the press and trafficking in stolen information are two different items. You may have the freedom to ‘bear arms’ but you don’t have the freedom to steal a gun and protect your position of that under the 2nd Amendment. You may have the freedom of religion but you don’t have the freedom to steal vestments of a church and use them for your own religious practice.
That’s a reasonable argument. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but it’s more reasonable that implying the 1st Amendment doesn’t apply because he’s not a journalist. Whether or not he is a journalist is simply irrelevant.