Journo Under Siege: Where is the Justice

I am living in a world where the boundaries of justice and freedom seem to blur with an ease which reminiscent of the silver screen's ability to blur boundaries of the possible and impossible. Journalists are a unique breed of people; they are the citizens who speak for truth, fight for it, and reveal its amorphous face to the world. It seems however, that people do not always appreciate the lengths journalists go to, to do their job and the fact that at the end of the day journalists are still people who have moral boundaries and ethics to uphold.

In October of 2001, Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper were asked to present evidence in the court case investigating the revelation of Valerie Plame as a member of the CIA. In order to present the evidence, both journalists would have to retract promises of confidence given to their sources and reveal those sources names. "Courts should not be able to 'just willy nilly extract information from reporters,' U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton of Washington told an American Bar Association panel on proposed shield legislation" (www.firstamendmentcenter.org). The mentioned shield legislation is a bill that states the rights journalists have to withhold information they have sworn to privacy in court. The bills leave room for instances in which national security or public safety is at risk but in general would have given protection to Journalists like Miller and Cooper. As a result of their initial refusal, both Miller and Cooper declined the demands of the court, an action that led to their being held in contempt. Miller eventually gave in to the court's wishes thanks to a discussion between his lawyer and his source’s that led to an agreement of disclosure. However, with no such agreement given to her, Miller refused to give the name of her source and was sentenced to 18 months in jail on July 6 2005 after months of appeals.

This is not the only instance of a journalist being oppressed by courts though, Claire O'Brien is a reporter in Kansas who in regards to her situation with the court said, "I feel profoundly betrayed. I have been prepared to take one of the most difficult steps a citizen can take and I haven't been given the dignity of representation ... to facilitate my choice, I have been told that I have to betray my sources in order to get legal help" (www.firstamendmentcenter.org). However, this case seems to fall all the other side of the issues because, "prosecutors want her notes from a jailhouse interview with a suspect in a shooting that left one man dead and another wounded. They also want to know the identity of confidential sources who alluded that the suspect might be in danger" (www.firstamendmentcenter.org).

While the argument can be made that it is the safety of the people the court pursues, the journalist pursues the safety of their source and in so doing practices ethical journalism. Aren’t ethical journalists what we desire?

Freedom of Press Demands Responsible Readers

Many people believe that there are many images, stories, videos – basically all forms of media and news are considered – that should not be shown to the general public or even made available for there use because of their violent or disturbing content. Examples which come to mind immediately are images of people jumping out of the twin towers on September 11,2001 when they were bombed; the people decided that suicide from the fall was better than death from the fires. Other examples include photos of students from the Virginia Tech shooting being carried injured out of buildings. These images are just examples of the content available to those who read the news and surf the Internet. There are a good deal of people find them to be considered as over the top and too graphic for public viewing due to those peoples assumptions and opinions that such images are not beneficial to the public in the retelling of such already unfortunate and distressing stories. There are others who hold the opinion which I hold; the public has a right to know the truth, and be informed in a way that paints no false images or expectations.

In many situations the truth, when revealed through photography and video and other media, can be alarmingly terrifying. People have tend to live in their own little world and live a self sheltered light in my experience and as a result of this, they feel betrayed by humankind when they are presented with a story that shows just how depraved the human soul can become. And while it is not necessarily always the case that people are self sheltered – some people are sheltered due to outside influence – the sheltering itself is something that I see as hugely problematic. In a world where a man can gain entry to a plane with a bomb in his underpants, can we afford to think that real people are not forced to decide weather to jump out of a burning building to their death or stay and lose their life in the fires blazing around them? Surely, no one will disagree that both the bombing of the World Trade Center and the attempted underwear bombing are not both acts of depraved humankind. Religion aside, to commit such acts shows a complete lack of respect for human life. The depraved acts of the world’s most misguided, lost, and insane must be made known to the public so that the public can act and live appropriately in light of the world they live.

So, what does it look like for people to view and treat these images correctly? Firstly, people must be aware of their maturity and if they are not mature enough to understand the purpose of such images and stories, it may be best that they be made aware by others who are able to explain them in ways which make it easier to take but not less powerful in meaning. The consumption of news requires reader maturity.