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• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100110010-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: June 2, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100110010-7
LYNCHBURG if' ^1 (VA)
2 JUNE 1980
Stansfield- Turner,- the director of
Central Intelligence;' is said to have
been stunned at the vigorous objections
b h 1' t I. h' t
discretion, is the- issue of whether
American journalists should ever accept
.a CIA assignment.
y t e nation s Journa is s o is recen Only a fool would argue that no
statement before the American Society circumstance could ever arise compell-
of Newspaper Editors t_ hat -the
reserves the.: right to employ ;:U.S .; ing a: journalist's involvement in an
newsmen as agents;and= indeed,, has.' intelligence operation. If an American
done so on three occasions.:' correspondent could prevent ' World
Neither his common sense, and that War III by delivering .a clandestine
failing, his,.. vast -intelligence network. to-someone in the Kremlin,
has forewarned `him hat; American : \ whowould argue that he should refuse?
reporters and. cameramen, now:; re Nevertheless,. it is;obvious that
cognize they cannot be- hired spies and _ journalists can hardly 'operate as paid
journalists simultaneously,'. that. they 'spies without hopelessly compromising
:.cannot. serve, their. readers and; their- their reporting responsibilities. This is
government at one- and the same time, not' to say, however, that' journalists
and that their responsibility is to their i ..cannot or should, not maintain a. pro-.
-readers, first and foremost fessional relationship with members of
the CIA-media link they intelligence community.: Indeed,
laimin
B
g.
y proc
to the-world, Turner,- cast' suspicion on foreign= correspondents would be de=
.every American reporter abroad: Worse relict if.'they did not. But seeking
information from the CIA, or any other
yet, he may have-endangered the lives
ue governmental agency,. is not the same
in intri
kin
o
li
ts
r
f U
S
g
w
r
g
s
. jou
na
:o
.
ridden Third World ' hotspots `or m . as being on. the federal payroll.
communist countries. ~': Much of the damage attributable to
Governments in many of these coup Turner s gaffes- may be irreversible;,
tries already assume' that at least some particularly in the shortrun. But he
correspondents = sent abroad. by could at least limit losses for everybody
employed on intelligence-gathering er - .What_he simply should do is to abide
jrands for the CIA- Never mind that-this by- the CIA policy enunciated in? 1976a
is flatly incorrect in.almost every-case ,a afters revelations the - CIA : had been
The, suspicion lingers, if for no othei' employing journalists as : undercover
eason..than that Third.World dictators' ents. That policy" clearly' states:-"The
? nd every. communist' stare routinely CIA will not enter into .any . paid or
e ploy their journalists. as spies. = --contractual. relationship with any full
!What Turner,-,.has:,*. done,.-: quite time, or part-time news correspondent
gratuitously, is to'lend those suspicions
a . kredence they" should never have.
Beyond the directors appalling. in-
accredited by any U.S. 'news service,
newspaper, _ periodical, radio or
television. network, or station."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100110010-7