Reporters And Secrecy

Being a reporter can be extremely hard at times. I am not talking about myself, because I am not a reporter, I am an observer, Β but I am talking about those people who work for the news media and are trying to get information for a story. Let me give you an example. There is a growing problem for reporters within the United States government. They are being kept away from many scientists who are doing government work on projects which are important to us. They are not being allowed to interview these people and this is only getting worse every year. I am not talking about scientists working on anything which should be kept quiet. Our government of secrets just keeps adding more secrets to the mix. We all know for a government to function there has to be some secrets, but when a government starts to make everything a secret there is a problem, it becomes a secret government an unconstitutional.

In 1988 a British investigative journalist named Duncan Campbell wrote an article for a magazine. The article blew the lid off ECHELON. In case you don’t know what I am talking about ECHELON was said to be a huge effort by the United States to tap all forms of communication in the entire world. After the article was written different agencies said there was no such program and it was a fantasy. Many people who read the article didn’t take it seriously. This must have bothered Campbell, but he just kept plugging along. It must have been hard for him, because he must have been mocked a lot by those with small minds and others who were part of the government disinformation program, but then something changed. That something was Edward Snowden. Edward Snowden is the famous whistleblower who worked for the CIA and decided to release thousands of secret documents. In some of those documents he confirmed the existence of ECHELON and said it was a system targeting communications satellites, among other things. It took Campbell until recently to have his original article recognized for what it was, a peek into the workings of secret American government operations.

A reporter who works for the New York Times wanted to write a story about government eavesdropping and tapping phone lines without a warrant. The Times, as a matter of policy, contacted the government and told them they were going to publish it, but so much pressure was brought to bear the story was put on hold for about a year. The reporter won a Pulitzer Prize when it was published, but the government was angry and demanded to know the source which the reporter stated was protected. They had arrested a former CIA worker and wanted the reporter to say he was the source to strengthen their case. We don’t know if he was the source or not, what we know is the reporter refuses to give up his source. He has been constantly harassed by the government ever since. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, ο»Ώ “It’s too early to make decisions regarding whether or not reporters should go to jail.”Β  So as you can see the Pulitzer Prize winning reporter now has to worry about going to jail. One may not agree with the idea of protecting a source, but think of it this way, if reporters gave up their sources there would be no investigative article, because of revenge on those sources.

In 2013 Federal agents and Maryland State Police had a warrant from an unrelated criminal investigation and used it to seize the private files of an award winning former investigative reporter for the Washington Times. This reporter had exposed problems in the Homeland Security Department’s Federal Air Marshall Service. The reporter stated her private notes were taken and the documents which were taken were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The warrant was for an unregistered fire arm and a potato gun. There was nothing stated in the warrant allowing the seizure of the notes. Several small arms were taken. It is said the warrant was specific and stated it was for guns and gun parts. The documents were eventually returned, but some had her sources listed on them.Β  You can copy and paste this link into your browser’s address bar for the entire article on the Washington Times, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/25/armed-agents-seize-records-reporter-washington-tim/?page=all. Sorry Truth Facts doesn’t use live links.

In 2014 a survey came out for CPJ, the Committee to Protect Journalists showing the amount of jailed journalists and the countries which had jailed them. None had been jailed by the United States. Some of the countries which did jail journalists were Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories had jailed 4, China had jailed 44, Mexico 1, Russia 1, Syria 12 and Turkey 7. In total there were 221 journalists in jail that year. Here is the problem, if we go back to the year 2000 we find 81 in jail, 140 less. The trend is not good. It seems the world has a lot more secrets to protect and the United States is considering jailing journalists.

The CPJ has more to say on the subject. They talk about how President Obama came into office pledging open government and talk about how it is not. They claim the White House is curbing even the routine disclosure of information. Another claim is that government officials don’t want to talk to reporters because of the aggressive prosecution of leakers of classified information and the aggressive surveillance programs. Have the people on top in the government scared those under them into secrecy? They claim there is an “Insider Threat Program” that has been implemented in every government department and it requires all government employees to help prevent unauthorized disclosures of information by monitoring the behavior of their colleagues. I would hate to think this is true. It is just so reminiscent of the Nazis, the Communists and dictators where everyone was spying on everyone else and expected to turn in even their relatives for breaking the rules.

We have gone way too far with secrecy and it is time for a change.