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A question of journalistic ethics

MOHAMMAD AMJAD HOSSAIN
IT is human instinct to know what is happening around as well as in other parts of the world. The news media, both print and electronic, provide the information. A reporter is the eyes and ears of news media. No news media is any better than that of its reporting staff. Photograph of significant event, eye catching heading and good lay out would matter little if reporting on the event is missing. And the job of reporting is risky. Many reporters lost their lives while covering war in battlefields or working in a conflict region. The basic philosophy of news reporting is the presentation of truth, not hiding it.
But what is actually happening in America these days? Are the news media following the ethics of news reporting? To begin with, I would like to recall oft quoted comment of Alexander Hamilton, lawmaker, first Secretary of Treasury in the United States of America (1789-1795), and founder of modern America, who said that "it was the press that the morals of this country have been ruined, and it is by the
press that they shall be restored." Now again the press in America has actually ruined the basic fabrics of society. By and large, it has turned out to be the propaganda machine of the ruling clique. They do not have any independent opinions. In the nineteenth century the news media in America had an image of protecting the interests of Americans, but now-a-days the news media has been toeing the line of government propaganda machine.
Against this gloomy backdrop a reporter of the New York Times, Judith Miller has made a news headline by herself accepting the ruling of a federal judge to go to jail instead of divulging the name of confidential sourceÊregarding CIA operative. The story goes like this that Judith Miller, investigative reporter of the New York Times refused to testify before the grand jury investigating the public disclosure of the identity of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, wife of Joseph C. Wilson, former Acting Ambassador to Iraq during 19901991.
Judith Miller did not report on the matter but she interviewed someone who disclosed the name of Valerie Plame. An article, however, by the syndicated columnist Robert Novak disclosed that Joseph Wilson, a retired career diplomat, was married
to an undercover CIA officer. The purpose of such article was to bring disgrace against Joseph Wilson since in his report to CIA Joseph Wilson said Saddam Hussein in Iraq did not buy any uranium from Niger that could be used for making nuclear weapons. Wilson was asked by CIA to investigate the matter while he was serving in the State Department as Director in charge of Africa. Wilson had also made public through his op-ed article in the New York Times that President had misrepresented the facts in his State of the Union address in 2003 wherein he said that Saddam Hussein attempted to import uranium from Niger.ÊThat caused embarrassment to Bush administration. It was not only Ambassador Wilson but also Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency who declared in the Security Council that the document produced by Bush administration in connection with importation of uranium from Niger by Saddam Hussein was false.
The New York Times in its editorial column on July 7 paid tribute to Judith Miller for her courageous decision saying that "by accepting her sentence, Ms Miller bowed to the authority of the court. But she acted in the great tradition of civil disobedience that began with this nation's founding which holds that the common good is best served in some instances by private citizens who are willing to defy a legal, but unjust or unwise order." Concluding it said that "we stand with Ms Miller and thank her for taking on that fight for
the rest of us."
However, one group of journalists is of the opinion that she should have divulged the source who disclosed the name of Palme in the interest of the public. Col. Allan, Editor of New York Post, said that "we here at the Post believe that reporters are not above the law." Another special Correspondent of CNN, Frank Sesno said that "this is not a Pentagon papers case. This is not the kind of case that, as a journalist, you'd want to go down for the count on." But the stand taken by Judith Miller is journalistic ethics. It has been the established tradition that reporters should not divulge the source of information under any circumstances.
Meanwhile, another reporter of Time magazine Matthew Copper decided to testify before grand jury because the management of the magazine decided to release documents as demanded by judge that revealed his confidential sources. It implied that authority of Time magazine did not support the stand taken earlier by Matthew Copper. According to different sources, Karl Rove, Deputy Chief at the White House and advisor to President Bush might have disclosed the identity of CIA officer, but his lawyer said that Rove did not name CIA officer. According to AP (Associated Press), as telecast by MSNBC television, the White House denied for better part of two years that Presidential advisor Karl Rove had anything to do with the leak of a female CIA officer's identityÊÊand that whoever did would be fired. But
Bush spokesman Scott McClellan on July 12 repeatedly refused those claims in the face of virulent attacks by the journalists at the White House. This was done because Rove's lawyer acknowledged that Presidential advisor spoke to Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, one of the reporters who disclosed Valerie Palme. It was revealed by Matthew Copper before grand jury that not only Karl Rove but also Lewis Scooter Libby, Chief of staff to VicePresident Dick Cheney, were the sources of information about operative CIA officer. Like Rove. Libby never used Valerie Plame's name or indicated that her status was covert, said Copper in his testimony. Section 421 of the Intelligence identities Protection Act of 1982 prohibits discloser of identity. In April, 1999, former US President and past Director of CIA, George H.W. Bush said, "even though I am a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have
nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors."
Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in a letter to the New York Times (published on July 7) said that "the sentencing of Judith Miller to jail for refusing to disclose her sources is the direct result of the culture of unaccountability that infects the Bush White House from top to bottom. President Bush's refusal to enforce his own call for full cooperation with the special counsel has brought us to this point. Clearly, the conspiracy to cover up the web of lies that underpinned the invasion of Iraq is more important to the White House than coming clean on a serious breach of national security."
Ms Miller, who joined The New York Times in 1977Êserved as Chief of Cairo bureau and also served in Paris and became news editor and deputy bureau chief at Washington, DC. Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and Al-qaeda. Unfortunately, no one found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The New York Times had to seek apology to the public on May 25, 2004 for misrepresenting facts in Iraq. Judith Miller herself admitted that her stories were based on the information given to her by Ahmad Chalabi, the exile Iraqi in the United States whose organisation was subsidised by the Department of Defense (Pentagon). Judith Miller is now in Alexandria jail in Virginia for a period of four months. In view of this embarrassing situation in the United States, journalists are demanding a shield to protect their professional ethics. Mohammad Amjad Hossain, a former diplomat, resides in Virginia.