The Petal paper. [volume], December 24, 1959, Page 11, Image 11

About The Petal paper. [volume] (Petal, Miss.) 1953-19??

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
II Jim Bomboy's Service v
Broadway Drive Dial 2-2594
i I
’Tis time to rejoice and honor
the Nativity of onr Saviour and to
reflect and reieiher Bis teachings j
i
l • • , . - • - * I
Meridian Fertilizer Factory
: ‘ i
i
★ Hattiesburg ★
j y '• - ' ■ ;T-* ”
i . . , • '
I jt • >4, 1^1 *■ - * ■ '-**■' ■ •
•• ^ ^
r »..•« V. <•••*. . *-.f • ..... jj
- VT ■■ ■—— .■■■■■
Long, Bitter Fight
Led To Nation's
Press Freedom
The list is small. It begins with
John T. Morris of the Baltimore
Sun. It ends, for the moment with
Marie Torre of the New York
Herald Tribune.
It’s a list of reporters who have
this in common: they have gone I
to jail rather than name the
source of information given them
in confidence.
Their defense of what they con
sidered a moral principle has
sparked 12 states to place con
versations between a reporter
and a news source in the same
privileged place as conversations
between priest and penitent, doc
tor and patient, attorney and
client.
However, the number of states
giving legal approval to a report
er’s privilege doesn’t appear des
tined to increase. For while re
porters are almost unanimously
in favor of the so-called “shield
laws,” legal groups, the American
Civil Liberties Union, and even
many newspaper publishers op
pose them.
Morris was responsible for rthe
first one. In 1896, while a Mary
land grand jury was considering
an important case, he predicted
the indictment so accurately that
I
the prosecutor declared Morris
had a source in the jury room
: Morris served four days in jail
rather than name his source.
The Sun campaigned so heavily
for a protective law that within
two months the Maryland legis
lature extended the right of priv
ilege to a reporter and his source.
Judicial groups raised so much
furor, however, that it was 37
years before another state, New
Jersey, passed a similar law.
In addition to Maryland and
New Jersey, these states have
shield laws: Alabama, Arizona,
Arkansas, California, Indiana,
Kentucky, Michigan, Montana,
Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Efforts have been made sev
eral times to have a federal shield
law enacted. Bills “to protect
confidential sources or informa
tion of newspapermen” died in
House and Senate judiciary com
mittees when the 86th Congress
adjourned in mid-September.
It was a federal judge who
sentenced Miss Torre, the Herald
Tribune’s radio-television colum
nist, to 10 days in jail last Janu
ary for refusing to disclose the
name of the anonymous TV ex
ecutive she quoted in a column
about actress Judy Garland.
Miss Torre’s attorneys argued
that “forced divulgence would in
flict upon the reporter perma
nent and irreparable harm” since
her news sources might evap
orate.
This is the reporter’s main ar
-1
gument for shield laws—that dis
closure of sources shuts of! fur
ther news for them. But they also
argue that unhealthy or iilegfcl
government situations and crimes
are often brought to public at
tention if newspapers can guar
antee their informants anonymi
ty, that many sources for such
news are reluctant to talk to
proper authorities through fear
of retaliation, and that libel laws
provide adequate guarantees
against publication of reckless
statements or innuendoes.
Motivated by the Torre case,
the World Congress of the Inter
national Federation of Journal
ists unanimously passed a resolu
tion in May supporting the prin
ciple that newsmen have the right
to protect their confidential
sources of information. The Am
erican Newspaper Guild followed
suit in June. 1
The American Newspaper Pub
lishers Assn, has taken no stand
on the shield laws. Cranston Wil
liams, general manager of the
ANPA, says he recently heard
one new spaper executive say that
no good reporter would write a
story based on a confidential
source without checking facts
with other sources. And if he did
that, the executive said, there
would be no need to protect a
confidential source.
Williams says another execu
tive expressed the opinion that
shield laws w*ould be used by
columnists more than others and
would eventually have a bad ef
fect on the newspaper business. 1
Unlike the legal and medical
professions, the newspaper busi
ness has no standards of practice.
To the ANPA’s way of thinking,
says Williams, this constitutes
the free press that is necessary
to the nation’s welfare.
The American Civil Liberties
Union says shield law s are neith
er necessary nor desirable. (
Swedish King Eric XIV was
poisoned by someone who slipped
arsenic into his pea soup in 1578.
L |,
'
IlH - ’ . '5 jr
m
« (
jfHap pou finb peace, jop
anb happiness at Christ*
mas time. ®h«Se are our
Sincere (pishes for aU our
frienbs toho habe mabe
^ this Christmas such a
toonberful one for us...
I
1 t
Ames Tire & Service Co.
I <fae* Pine St. 6; ^ Dial 3-4325
■ r/lit 111 fill hi mill-mm." ' - I • iiMiriiil In. imciir n n
: *% -
V * S
1
■ 4
i
I i
p
a
II ! t ■ 1;
Jftit's our cheery
greeting for a
Happy Holiday...
wishes that great '
Yule joy may
come your way,
l
Brehany
Electric
■ , y 5 4 ’ !■»•: _ 4
company
+*** ■Mini' ' T.——- -