CPJ Delegation, Including Brokaw, Visits Judith Miller

By: E&P Staff A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has met with jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller in the Alexandria Detention Center. "At the end of our 30-minute conversation," said former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, "it was emphatically clear that she is absolutely convinced that she made the right decision and is prepared to stay the course."

Paul Steiger, CPJ chairman and Wall Street Journal managing editor, headed the delegation, which included Brokaw and CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. The group talked with Miller for a half hour though a clear plastic partition. She said she has been able to go outside just twice in three weeks.

"There's no good purpose in keeping this dedicated, honorable, committed professional in jail," Steiger said after the visit.

Miller wore a dark green prison uniform with "PRISONER" written in capital letters on the back. While she praised the professionalism of the detention center staff, she said the crowded facility is subjected to random lockdowns for security reasons.

In a statement, CPJ's 35-member board said it "strenuously protests" Miller's July 6 imprisonment, which was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan after the reporter refused to testify about a confidential source before a grand jury investigating the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity. Uncertainty remains about Miller's role in the probe, with speculation all over the map, including the possibility she may have mentioned Plame first to an administration official.

In calling for Miller's immediate release, the statement noted that more than 120 journalists were imprisoned around the world at the end of 2004, "primarily in China, Cuba, Eritrea, and other countries where journalists are frequently locked up in the course of practicing their profession."

By jailing Miller, the statement said, "the U.S. government is not only undermining the ability of a free press to function in this country but also sending a signal to other governments that such a course is acceptable when dealing with journalists of whose actions they do not approve."

CPJ, a New York-based nonprofit organization that monitors press freedom conditions in more than 100 countries, compiles an annual census of journalists imprisoned because of their work. "Only a minority of countries worldwide imprison journalists for their work," Cooper said. "The United States, long seen as setting a global standard for freedom of the press, is damaging its international reputation by jailing journalists."

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