NIEMAN REPORTS THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOL. 59 NO. 2 SUMMER 2005 Five Dollars Eroding Freedoms: Secrecy, Truth and Sources Truth and Falsehood Journalist’s Trade: Training Journalists in Foreign Countries International Journalism: Darfur’s Silence and Russia’s Restrictions “… to promote and elevate the standards of journalism” —Agnes Wahl Nieman, the benefactor of the Nieman Foundation. Vol. 59 No. 2 NIEMAN REPORTS Summer 2005 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY Publisher Bob Giles Editor Melissa Ludtke Assistant Editor Lois Fiore Editorial Assistant Sarah Hagedorn Design Editor Deborah Smiley Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published Editorial in March, June, September and December Telephone: 617-496-6308 by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, E-Mail Address: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098. [email protected] Subscriptions/Business Internet Address: Telephone: 617-496-2968 www.nieman.harvard.edu E-Mail Address: [email protected] Copyright 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Subscription $20 a year, $35 for two years; add $10 per year for foreign airmail. Single copies $5. Second-class postage paid at Boston, Back copies are available from the Nieman office. Massachusetts and additional entries. Please address all subscription correspondence to POSTMASTER: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 Send address changes to and change of address information to Nieman Reports, P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108. P.O. Box 4951, ISSN Number 0028-9817 Manchester, NH 03108. Vol. 59 No. 2 NIEMAN REPORTS Summer 2005 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY 4 Words & Reflections Eroding Freedoms: Secrecy, Truth and Sources WATCHDOG 6 Truth and Trust: In Iraq War Coverage, They’ve Become Casualties BY SIG CHRISTENSON 11 Journalism In the Age of Pseudoreporting BY FRANK GREVE WATCHDOG 13 Journalism and the Public Interest BY DANIEL SCHORR WATCHDOG 15 Why Objectivity Still Matters BY STEPHEN J. BERRY WATCHDOG 17 Why Won’t Journalists Follow the Money? BY MORTON MINTZ 20 Spin Alley: A Microcosm of Journalism’s Struggles BY LISA STONE WATCHDOG 24 Can Government Prohibit a Journalist’s Access to Public Officials? BY TIMOTHY A. FRANKLIN WATCHDOG 26 All Is Silent at City Hall BY ANDREA WOOD WATCHDOG 27 Anonymous Sources: Their Use in a Time of Prosecutorial Interest BY WALTER PINCUS WATCHDOG 29 Reporters Weigh the Value of Information Against the Threat of Legal Action BY DAN OLMSTED WATCHDOG 30 Protecting Reporters Who Protect Sources BY LUCY DALGLISH 33 Trust: What It Means for Journalism A TALK BY KAREN STEPHENSON WATCHDOG 35 ‘The Seduction of Secrecy’ A SYMPOSIUM ABOUT ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFORMATION 45 Introducing a New Concept Into Libel Law BY RANDALL P. BEZANSON AND GILBERT CRANBERG 47 The Public Isn’t Buying Press Credibility BY CARROLL DOHERTY 49 Why the First Amendment (and Journalism) Might Be in Trouble BY KEN DAUTRICH AND JOHN BARE 51 Loving and Doubting Journalism at the Same Time BY GEORGE KENNEDY 52 Ethical Journalism Is Not an Oxymoron BY LEE WILKINS AND RENITA COLEMAN 54 Looking at American Journalism From the Outside In BY RON JAVERS 56 When the Beat Does Not Go On BY HUNTLY COLLINS 57 Books 58 Seeing What Others Failed to Notice BY EDWARD A. GARGAN 59 Getting an Up-Close View of the Military in Iraq BY ALISSA J. RUBIN 61 Passionate Criticism of Iraq War Coverage By the American Press BY TOM WICKER 62 A Remembrance of Foreign Reporting BY JOHN MAXWELL HAMILTON 65 The Global Poverty Beat BY CHRIS WADDLE 67 An American Correspondent Brings Africa Out of the Shadows BY WILSON WANENE Cover Image: Courtesy of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop. “Truth and Falsehood” by Alfred George Stevens, Blandford, England, 1817-1875, London, England. Photo by Junius Beebe. 70 Journalist’s Trade: Training Journalists in Foreign Countries 72 When Journalism Training Isn’t Enough BY SUE VALENTINE 73 Press Silence Before Rwanda’s Genocide BY JACQUES A. RIVARD 74 Training Iraqi Translators How to Act as Reporters BY PATRICK J. MCDONNELL 76 A Challenging Experience in Cape Verde BY RUI ARAUJO WATCHDOG 78 Helping Armenian Reporters Dig Deeper BY LUCINDA FLEESON 80 Advice and Guidance for International Journalism Trainers BY JOHN BARE 83 Trainers Can Remain Foreign to Local Journalists BY RAGIP DURAN 84 Lessons in Teaching Foreign Journalists BY JEROME AUMENTE 88 When Bureaucracy Trumps Excellence BY VALERIE HYMAN 90 Journalism Education That Succeeds BY KARL IDSVOOG 92 Getting Ukrainian Journalists to Ask Ordinary People Questions BY PEGGY SIMPSON 94 Debating How and Why Journalists Do What They Do BY KEVIN CULLEN WATCHDOG 96 Press Freedom in Ropczycka, Poland BY WATSON SIMS 97 It’s Tough to Find New Footholds in Journalism BY GEORGE ABRAHAM 99 Respecting Cultural Traditions in a Newsroom BY TIM GIAGO 101 New Tools in Telling News Stories BY DANIEL ULANOVSKY SACK 104 Planting the Roots of Public Radio in Chile BY DOUG MITCHELL 106 Teaching Journalism, Finding a Home BY MICHELE MCLELLAN 108 Sharing Techniques of Publishing BY RALPH HANCOX 110 International Journalism 111 When Genocide Is a Story Left Largely Untold AN INTERVIEW WITH NICHOLAS KRISTOF 113 Darfur Fits Into a Pattern of Reporting Neglect BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER 115 Fear and Self-Censorship in Vladimir Putin’s Russia BY MASHA GESSEN 118 Increasing Press Repression in Russia BY ALEX LUPIS 3 Curator’s Corner: The Nieman Reunion: A Time to Talk and Listen BY BOB GILES 120 Nieman Notes COMPILED BY LOIS FIORE 120 A Berlin Experience for American Journalists BY PAUL STOOP 121 Class Notes 127 End Note: An Unseen Side of Iran A PHOTO ESSAY BY MOLLY BINGHAM 2 Nieman Reports / Summer 2005 Curator’s Corner The Nieman Reunion: A Time to Talk and Listen ‘I understand better our obligation to expand communication about the program through the tools of e-mail and the Web.’ By Bob Giles ieman Foundation reunions are many things to those and Asia Center at Harvard to provide an educational experi- who attend: a chance to see old friends, experience a ence for 40 Chinese officials assigned to work with the press Ntaste of Harvard, and find out what’s new at Lippmann during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. I explained it was not House and the Nieman program. For this gathering of Nieman our intent to provide instruction on how to do things—the Fellows in early May, the focus on talking and listening was definition of “training.” Rather it would be an educational especially important. and informational program designed to give the Olympic A conversation with the Curator during the Sunday morning representatives an accurate understanding of the history and brunch at Lippmann House offered a clear picture of what traditions of the U.S. press under the First Amendment, plus was on the minds of fellows in the room and suggested ways a picture of the wide variety of topics the press will want to of opening new lines of communication about the Nieman report on when it goes to China during the games. program. The alumni seemed particularly to want assurance The voices raised in opposition said it was not appropriate that the addition of weekend seminars and the narrative for the Nieman Foundation to meet with representatives of a journalism program had not taken anything away from the repressive regime that, among other things, had imprisoned fellows’ core experience. Many told me later or sent e-mails journalists. Others worried that the program would prepare to say that, having now seen Lippmann House and heard the Chinese officials to manipulate the press or that these of- from current fellows, they were satisfied that the program is ficials would use the Nieman name as a cover for whatever they serving its mandate. might in managing news coverage during the Olympics. The alumni also asked about the origins of the narrative News of the issue in the days following drew comments journalism program. They sought full details on the con- from others who sent e-mails, some with opinions favoring struction of Knight Center at Lippmann House. They were the idea but most expressing concern. During a long meet- interested in the reasoning behind a reorganization of the ing with the current Nieman class, it became clear to me Nieman Foundation staff. that the continuing furor was putting the reputation of the Members of the class of 2005 joined the discussion with foundation at risk. The issue was no longer whether it was stories about the enrichment they had found in the weekend acceptable to have a dialogue with Chinese Olympic officials; conferences and the narrative experience. I offered evidence the imperative had become one of withdrawal in the interest that the original purposes of the fellowship program remained of protecting our name. The response to this decision from the first priority of the foundation and that the core mission Nieman alumni and others—even those who thought that such was solidly in place. One alumna wondered why we had a program might make a small contribution to transparency weekly shoptalks on journalism, suggesting that the fellows in China—was decidedly positive. come here to get away from journalism for a year. I replied The reunion offered a rare opportunity to talk and listen that there had been a thread of journalism running through and left me with a much clearer sense of the deep loyalty and the program since the beginning and that it seemed unlikely commitment of the Nieman alumni and the intensity of their that 24 journalists could come together and not want to talk desire to make sure the fellows’ experience remains faithful and think about our craft.