(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release: IAPA voices alarm at Justice Department order MIAMI, Florida (September 7, 2001) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed alarm and concern at an order by the U.S. Justice Department for a reporter to hand over a record of his telephone calls The organization […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release:
IAPA voices alarm at Justice Department order
MIAMI, Florida (September 7, 2001) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed alarm and concern at an order by the U.S. Justice Department for a reporter to hand over a record of his telephone calls The organization called the move a direct attack on the right of journalists to keep their sources confidential.
The order was issued to Associated Press reporter John Solomon.
The IAPA sent a note to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft calling the order an assault on a basic liberty and a curtailment of free speech and press freedom. It called for a reconsideration of the judicial rulings concerning the confidentiality of news sources in both Solomon’s case and that of reporter Vanessa Leggett, who was jailed 50 days ago for contempt of court after refusing to reveal her sources.
Following is the full text of the message to Ashcroft, signed by IAPA President Danilo Arbilla, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, news weekly Búsqueda:
Mr. Attorney General:
The Inter American Press Association expresses its alarm and concern at the decision of the Department of Justice to order the handing over of the record of telephone calls made and received by a journalist, a move that sets a negative precedent and amounts to a direct attack on the right to keep sources confidential, regarded as fundamental for there to be press freedom.
An assault on a basic liberty has taken place, with the objective of learning the identity of an anonymous source used by John Solomon of The Associated Press, more so because the action was taken without all the official investigative resources having been exhausted and without the journalist having been notified before he was required to hand over the record of the telephone calls he had received and made at his home from May 2 to 7.
In a news story issued on May 4, Solomon reported information obtained through a source who asked to remain anonymous about the wiretapping of the telephone of New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli in the course of a federal investigation into organized crime.
This judicial order, as in the case of reporter Vanessa Leggett, who has been in jail since July 20 for contempt of court after refusing to reveal confidential information to a federal grand jury and exercising her right and duty to protect her news sources, amounts to censorship and an obstacle to the free practice of journalism, investigative reporting, the free flow of news, the press’ independence. As a consequence, it curtails free speech and press freedom, guaranteed under the First Amendment.
On behalf of the 1,300 IAPA member publications in the Western Hemisphere, we reiterate our concern and urge you to use your good offices for a reconsideration of the recent judicial orders concerning confidentiality of news sources.
