JOURNALISTS ARE NOT SPIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100200116-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 15, 2007
• Sequence Number: 116
• Publication Date: April 14, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/15: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100200116-4
ARTICLE NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE 14 APRIL 1980
Journalists Are o
Stansfield Turner, the Director of Central Intelli. -
gence, seems surprised to learn how the nation's news
organizations feel about having journalists recruited
for C.I.A. work. His vast information plant did not pre-
pare him for the reaction of the American Society of
Newspaper Editors when he'told them he reserves the
right to enlist journalists in secret missions..
Very simply, responsible editors most vigorously
protest the director's policy as a threat to the safety of
American correspondents, to their ability to.function in
dangerous parts of the world and, to the integrity of-
their reports. We argue from the. premise that free
American inquiry around the world has a greater value
than any occasional intelligence mission.-The Ameri-
can press has a higher right than the:Director's occa-
sional convenience, the right to a guarantee that its
calling will not be subverted by its own Government,',.'-
American reporters cannot long function abroad if
forced to operate under a cloud of suspicion.. They need
to be what they represent themselves-to be: independ-
ent seekers of information.which they communicate to
the pub) ic. They may be suspected of national, political
or personal bias,- but they should never be plausibly
suspected of also being C.I.A. operatives. For Admiral
Turner to contend that some journalists are fair game
for his pressing work'is to suggest that any and all may
be. That is a burden the press cannot bear.
We are not much impressed with the bureaucratic
care with which Admiral Turner says he only rarely
"waives" his own regulation. against enlisting report
ers; clergymen and academics. He told Congress re-;
Gently that he had approved three such ventures under
particularly urgent circumstances. It was left to his
deputy to complete the report a few days later by testi-
fying that hone of these missions was actually under-
taken. So much for the admiral's careful supervision.
Admiral Turner says it is naive to think American
news personnel are seen abroad as free of all intelli-
gence contacts. But it is one thing for a journalist to in-
terview intelligence agents abroad, quite another to
carryout a United States spying chore. If foreigners
are already suspicious, what are they to think when the
No, l spy confirms their fear?
Admiral Turner implies that there is something
unpatriotic in the journalist's refusal to conternplate
aid to his country.'On the contrary, there is no higher
service for a free press than to operate openly and inde
pendently to inform all Americans, including the intel-
ligence agencies. That, too, is serving the nation. As
Justice Hugo Black once observed, the, press is "one of
the very agencies the Framers of our Constitution
thoughtfully and deliberately selected to improve cur
society and keep it free." That worthy ideal cannot be
pursued if the line between the American press and the
American Government is so dangerously blurred.
The admiral may disagree, but his failure even to
understand the issues involved -is alarming. He can
hardly have given adequate advice to President Car-
ter, who is supporting his director. The President
should think again.
Approved For Release 2007/06/15: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100200116-4