AMERICAN PRESS INSTITUTE– It can be something of a jolt to the democratic sensibilities of most Americans when they learn that a journalist has been arrested for treason, held for months without public charges, denied bail not by a court but by the government accuser, and is destined to be tried in secret.

And even though that injustice unfolds in China, quite distant from us geographically and constitutionally, there are elements of such government action that offer unsettling reminders that from time to time we threaten our journalists with jail, too.

Zhao Yan was charged by Chinese authorities with the capital crime of leaking state secrets after his employer, The New York Times, published an article about the impending resignation of a top government official. Zhao and the Times both assert that Zhao had nothing to do with the article; nevertheless he faces a harsh prison sentence.

Zhao is not alone. The Times reports that 30 other journalists are in jail in China right now on similar charges.

Such a thing couldn’t happen in the United States, at least not in that way.

We have the First Amendment to protect journalists. We have independent courts to safeguard the rights of all Americans. It is not in our nature to charge journalists with treason when they disclose sensitive government information.

We are much more circumspect when we threaten journalists who irritate government officials or confound government procedures. We try to follow the law and we respect the Constitution.

But we still find ways to send journalists to jail.

For example, one way around current law and the First Amendment is to go after journalists’ confidential sources – and then send the journalists to jail if they refuse to disclose those sources to a grand jury investigating a possible crime.

That is why Judith Miller, also a Times employee, has been incarcerated nearly three months in a federal prison, the longest term ever served by a newspaper reporter in the United States. Miller is not in prison for revealing “state secrets”; she did not even write an article. Instead, she was held in contempt of court for refusing to tell a grand jury who in the government she talked to, or, more probably, who talked to her.

Read more about Sending Journalists to Jail.

© AMERICAN PRESS INSTITUTE 2005

(Video Below) June, 1998

PR WATCH– By all accounts, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson are tough, bulldog reporters–the sort of journalists you’d expect to make some enemies along the way.

That, according to Florida TV station WTVT, was why it hired the husband-and-wife team with much fanfare in November 1996 to head the station’s “news investigative unit.” Now, in the wake of their firing barely a year later, the Fox network affiliate is accusing them of theft for daring to independently publish the script of the story that they were never allowed to air.

“This is really not about a couple of disgruntled former reporters whining that their editors wouldn’t let them do a story they thought was important,” Wilson said in announcing that he and Akre are suing WTVT for breach of contract. “Jane and I have each spent more than 20 years in the news business. . . . It doesn’t take that long for every reporter to learn that every now and then–usually when the special interest of your news organization or one of its friends is more important than the public interest–stories get killed. That’s bad enough, but that’s not what happened here. . . . Fox 13 didn’t want to kill the story revealing synthetic hormones in Florida’s milk supply. Instead, as we explain in great detail in our legal complaint, we were repeatedly ordered to go forward and broadcast demonstrably inaccurate and dishonest versions of the story. We were given those instructions after some very high-level corporate lobbying by Monsanto (the powerful drug company that makes the hormone) and also, we believe, by members of Florida’s dairy and grocery industries.”

The hormone in question is genetically-engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), the flagship product in Monsanto’s campaign to take command of the ultra-high-stakes biotechnology industry. Injections of rBGH (sold under the brand name Posilac®) induce higher milk production in dairy cows, but critics warn of potential health risks to both cows and humans.

The Florida dispute offers a rare look inside the newsroom at the way stories get spun and censored. It is also cracks the facade that Monsanto has erected through a highly effective, multi-million-dollar PR offensive aimed at preventing the news media from reporting the views of rBGH critics.

Continue reading about Monsanto and Fox: Partners in Crime.

A version of this article appeared in the June 1998 issue of The Progressive magazine. Further information about the Akre-Wilson lawsuit is available on their website at http://www.foxBGHsuit.com

Clip from The Corporation: Unsettling Accounts

© COPYRIGHT PR WATCH, 1998

THE INDEPENDENT– A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country’s rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after “liberation” and under the democratic rule of the West’s ally Hamid Karzai.

The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.

The Independent is launching a campaign today to secure justice for Mr Kambaksh. The UN, human rights groups, journalists’ organisations and Western diplomats have urged Mr Karzai’s government to intervene and free him. But the Afghan Senate passed a motion yesterday confirming the death sentence.

The MP who proposed the ruling condemning Mr Kambaksh was Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, a key ally of Mr Karzai. The Senate also attacked the international community for putting pressure on the Afghan government and urged Mr Karzai not to be influenced by outside un-Islamic views.

The case of Mr Kambaksh, who also worked a s reporter for the Jahan-i-Naw (New World) newspaper, is seen in Afghanistan as yet another chapter in the escalation in the confrontation between Afghanistan and the West.

Continue reading about the Afghan Sentenced to Death for Spreading Information.

How you can save Pervez

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh’s imminent execution is an affront to civilised values. It is not, however, a foregone conclusion. If enough international pressure is brought to bear on President Karzai’s government, his sentence may yet be overturned. Add your weight to the campaign by urging the Foreign Office to demand that his life be spared. Sign our e-petition at www.independent.co.uk/petition

© COPYRIGHT THE INDEPENDENT, 2008