JULY 6, 2005
Posted: July 7, 2005
Judith Miller, The New York Times
IMPRISONED
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan ordered reporter Miller jailed immediately for refusing to reveal her confidential source to a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity. He ordered her held on a contempt of court charge until October, or until she agrees to testify. Miller said she would not testify.
A second reporter who faced prison, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, told Hogan that he would cooperate with the investigation because his source gave him "personal consent" today to discuss their conversation. "I am prepared to testify," Cooper told Hogan in a hearing in Washington, D.C.
Hogan had found both reporters in contempt and imposed prison terms last fall, but stayed the sentences pending appeals by the journalists. The avenue for appeals ended last week when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Time, which had also been found in contempt last fall, agreed last week to hand over internal records, notes, and e-mails that were sought by Fitzgerald.
Syndicated writer Robert Novak first identified the CIA officer, Valerie Plame, in a July 2003 column, attributing the information to two unnamed "senior administration officials." Cooper wrote about the disclosure later; Miller conducted interviews but never wrote a story.
A special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, was appointed by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to determine whether any government officials committed a crime by willfully disclosing the identity of the undercover agent. Government prosecutors and the columnist have refused to say what information, if any, Novak provided to the grand jury. Novak was not publicly compelled to testify and he was not cited for contempt.
No government official has been charged in Fitzgerald's investigation. The prosecutor has said in court papers that his investigation is nearly complete. In motions filed this week, Fitzgerald claimed that the source for Cooper and Miller had waived confidentiality. He did not identify the source or sources.
Novak's column came eight days after Plame's husband, former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson IV, wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times challenging the Bush administration over its allegations regarding Iraq's weapons programs. Numerous reports later asserted that administration officials had leaked Plame's identity in retaliation against Wilson.
SEPTEMBER 1-7, 2005
Posted October 17, 2005
Lucas Oleniuk, Toronto Star
Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle
Brian Williams, NBC
HARASSED
U.S. and international media outlets complained of harassment in the days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Unites States' Gulf region. They have also cited an attempt to restrict coverage by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The agency, which has been heavily criticized for its initial slow response to the disaster, publicly asked news organizations not to photograph bodies being recovered in Louisiana and Mississippi.
On September 1, police in New Orleans ripped a camera from the neck of Lucas Oleniuk of the Toronto Star, who had photographed clashes between police and looters. They removed memory cards, robbing Oleniuk of more than 350 images, which included shots of "officers delivering a fierce beating to two suspects, an assault so fearsome one of the suspects defecated," the Toronto Star reported.
On September 7, Peter Fimrite of the San Francisco Chronicle, said he was surrounded by a New Orleans police SWAT team for being out on the street after dark. He was trying to find a cell phone signal on a street where 17 journalists from the Hearst Corp. were housed. A guard hired to protect the journalists called the police action unprofessional and said that the Army had been patrolling the street for a week and knew of the journalists' presence. He criticized the police for not coordinating with the Army.
Brian Williams, anchor for U.S. broadcaster NBC, said he and his crew were ordered to stop trying to film a National Guard unit securing a store in downtown New Orleans on September 7. "I have searched my mind for some justification for why I can't be reporting in a calm and heavily defended American city and cannot find one," Williams was quoted by the Washington Post as saying. "I don't like being told when I can and cannot walk on the streets and take pictures," he added.
Journalists have been angered by FEMA's "request" to avoid filming the dead. The Washington Post reported that some Louisiana officials, whether taking their cue from FEMA or not, were attempting to make the policy mandatory. Washington Post reporter Timothy Dwyer said he heard a sergeant from a state agency telling a camera crew allowed on a boat in a flooded area near downtown New Orleans, "If we catch you photographing one body, we're going to bring you back in and throw you off the boat." The irony, Dwyer said, was that two bodies, one in a black bag, the other covered by a blue quilt, were visible on the off-ramp of Interstate 10 that the boats were using as a staging area.
Journalists have also been assaulted by looters and one was shot and wounded in an apparent robbery attempt.
OCTOBER 8, 2005
October 18, 2005
Rich Matthews, Associated Press Television News
HARASSED
Two New Orleans police officers were caught on film beating a man suspected of public intoxication, and a third officer was caught on film harassing the Associated Press Television News producer whose crew was filming the scene.
The footage shows the third officer ordering the producer, Rich Matthews, to stop filming the beating. Matthews held up his press credentials. The officer grabbed the producer and forcibly leaned him backward over a parked car. The officer further jabbed the journalist in the stomach while subjecting him to string of profanities.
All three officers were suspended from active duty, pending an official investigation. The incident came a month after Hurricane Katrina