(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 2 May 2002 CPJ press release: CPJ Calls for U.S. Ban on Recruiting Journalists as Spies Washington D.C., May 2, 2002 — In Senate testimony today, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Washington representative Frank Smyth argued that the U.S. government should never recruit journalists as spies, and that […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 2 May 2002 CPJ press release:
CPJ Calls for U.S. Ban on Recruiting Journalists as Spies
Washington D.C., May 2, 2002 — In Senate testimony today, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Washington representative Frank Smyth argued that the U.S. government should never recruit journalists as spies, and that U.S. intelligence operatives should never pose as journalists.
Appearing before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Smyth underscored the need to maintain an inviolate firewall between U.S. intelligence agencies and the press.
“I want to highlight one action that CPJ believes the U.S. government should never take: Using an American journalist as a CIA agent,” Smyth testified.
During questioning by subcommittee members, Smyth noted that the CIA has been barred from using journalists as spies since the 1970s, although this policy can be overruled through an executive waiver. In response, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the subcommittee chair, said she would seek clarification from CIA Director George Tenet.
For more information on CPJ’s testimony click on this link: http://www.cpj.org/news/2002/USA02may02na.html
The Committee to Protect Journalists is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information about our work, visit www.cpj.org
