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The evolution of the role When was there a change in the role and the freedom
of the Press? |
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by
Marie VANDAME Stephanie VINOT Aude WILS |
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The evolution of the role When was there a change in the role and the freedom
of the Press? |
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by
Marie VANDAME Stephanie VINOT Aude WILS |
| Introduction | |
| PART 1 : The Watergate | -
The story of a scandal. - The role of the Washington Post’s reporters. - White House attempts to stop investigations. |
| PART 2 : The Vietnam War | -
Soldiers and the media : tense relationships - The power of public opinion |
| PART 3 : The War in Iraq | - The
origin of the war - Relations between journalists and the American Army. - The attitude of the American Army is an outrage to the freedom of the press . - Pools : a solution for these tensions ? |
| Conclusion | |
| Bibliography | |
| Appendixes | Synthesis of Stéphanie, Marie and Aude |
INTRODUCTION
| We are interested in current issues, particularly in journalism and in the working conditions of reporters in the world. Moreover, the media is considered as the fourth power - behind the executive, legislative and judiciary ones. At first, we wanted to broach a lot of different aspects of the press, but we realized that it was such a huge theme that we eventually had to direct and limit our searches. At that moment, a journalist from RFI (the International French Radio) was killed in the exercise of his duties in Ivory Coast. It made us choose to speak about the role of the press in time of crisis. |
We found this subject interesting, given that the journalists' situation has always evolved notably during the twentieth century. Some famous events acted a lot on this situation, on the role of the press, and on its freedom. So we decided to study the Watergate scandal which was the most striking example of the power of press; then the Vietnam war, a turning point in the way to cover the war; and finally, the war in Iraq, which showed the aftermaths of the media's evolution. |
The word especially refers to the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C but it's also a general term used to describe the complex political scandal that took place in the USA between 1972 and 1974 and that's what we're going to study.
The story of a scandal :
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On June 17th, 1972, five "Burglars" (Gonzalez, Martinez, Barker, McCord and Sturgis) broke into the Democratic Party's National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office building. Frank Wills, a security guard gave the alert; the burglars were arrested. There began the most incredible political scandal, implying spying, lies, nonsense, and that revealed constitutional problems... On September 15th, 1972, the burglars were indicted, as well as G. Gordon Liddy (chief operative for the burglars) and E. Howard Hunt (man from Nixon's inner circle). They were sentenced to prison by Judge John J. Sirica except James McCord because he mentioned pressures brought on the burglars to make them keep silent. On October, 10th, 1972, the Washington Post newspaper revealed that the Committee to Re-elect the President (C.R.P) had illicitly paid out money to a political spying web. It immediately implied that the burglars were tied closely to the C.R.P and the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A). At that moment, some of Nixon's aides began talking to federal prosecutors. The defection of aides such as Jeb Stuart Magruder, assistant to C.R.P director John N. Mitchell, quickly implied others in Nixon's inner circle. |
On February 7th, 1973, The Senate unanimously established a board of inquiry headed by Senator San Ervin. Soon, Nixon announced the resignations of H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman (two of his closest advisors) as well as the dismissal of John W. Dean, his counsel. The Leaders of the inquiry, which intensified, were Judge Sirica, reporters of the Washington Post, the Ervin committee and Archibald Cox who entered the scandal in May 1973 as a special prosecutor. A few months later, former White House staff member Alexander Butterfield revealed president Nixon had secretly tape-recorded conversations in offices. A. Cox and the Ervin committee tried then to obtain some tapes but Nixon, citing the 'Executive Privilege' refused to give them (here we find the constitutional problem: Nixon couldn't keep the tapes because the Watergate was a criminal matter and so he couldn't cite the Executive Privilege). Moreover Nixon wanted to have Cox fired; as Elliot L. Richardson refused as well as William Ruckelshaus, the former resigned and the latter got fired. Then, Nixon put one of his men instead (Robert H. Bork) and finally got Cox fired. The "Saturday night massacre" (that evening is called so because of the events that happened) revealed that president Nixon had much more to hide than anyone expected. |
Leon Jaworski replaced Cox as special prosecutor and he kept asking for the tapes; facing the same refusal, on March 1st, 1974, seven men were indicted including Haldeman, Charles Colson, Ehrlichman and Mitchell (Nixon's inner circle) for conspiracy to obstruct justice. .On April, 30th, 1974, the president edited writings about conversations about the Watergate. Judge Sirica was not satisfied and wanted additional tapes; when Nixon refused, The Supreme Court was to rule against him (a president can hold national security material but Watergate is a criminal matter i.e. constitutional problem). On
July, 1974, from the 27th to the 30th, the Judiciary House committee disclosed
evidence of the White House illegal activities and recommended that Nixon
be impeached on three charges : On August 5th, 1974, Nixon gave his tapes that showed his involvement in the Watergate affair. It destroyed his congressional support and for that reason, among others, Richard Nixon, on August 9th, 1974 became the first US president to resign. |
The role of the Washington Post’s reporters :
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Graham, Woodward, Bernstein, and Bradlee these names are quite famous as far as the Watergate scandal is concerned. These are the names of the Washington Post's reporters who investigated for months to obtain the truth in this occurrence. When the links between the White House and the burglars became evident, and in spite of sensational revelations, a lot of medias lost interest in the story very quickly and though The Washington Post covered the story, nobody was thrilled with it at first. |
Two relatively inexperienced reporters were assigned to cover the story before it was decided to 'dig' deeper this strange occurrence. But most newspapers accepted the claim of the White House Press Secretary that the incident was a third-rate burglary. So most of the press waited for more evidence to come in before they ran the story, but what is strange is that only the two reporters made a serious effort to find more. Indeed, although Nixon claimed that press was harassing him whatever he did and in spite of the President's high popularity in those days, The Washington Post's reporters continued their investigations. And they continued over and over again until they got the truth, making the president resign. | According to Katharine Graham (former publisher of the Washington Post), the Watergate was 'the most important occurrence in [her] working life'. And to Ben Bradlee (executive editor), the 26-months scandal is remembered as 'the most intense moment in all [his] life'. We can mention there is a film that deals with the Watergate story seen from the side of two reporters of the Washington Post All The President's men. Here you can find an interpretation of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's roles (by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford). |
White House attempts to stop investigations :
| We can now list a few things the White House (in the person of the president but also in that of others') did to try to stop the investigations. Nixon got several important persons fired so as to restrain the investigations, | that is the thing that we have seen most in this affair. But he also hid a lot of proofs (the recorded tapes among others)...he lied, going as far as claiming the press harassed him referring to the investigations led by | the Washington Post's reporters. Nixon also used the CIA to put pressure on the burglars and the reporters; in fact, he took advantage of his presidential powers during the whole affair. |
| As a conclusion, I will say that the Watergate scandal is one of the most well known scandals in the world and that it is a perfect example of the power of the press. Indeed, in that story, using the freedom they had to get information, the press really fulfilled its | role : to inform the population and represent public opinion in spite of the difficult conditions and in spite of the pressures exerted by powerful people, among whom Nixon himself who indeed hid each thing they were looking for. |
From 1964 to 1973, the Vietnam War was a turning point in the history of the press. It was a time when journalists had a complete liberty to act on the army ground, and broadcast information about the war. It was also the first time that a government had to stop the war because of the public opinion.
Soldiers and the media : tense relationships
| In each
conflict, there are 3 main elements: the government, the army, and the media.
Each one needs the others, but very often, they do not have the same priorities,
and the same motivations. That is why their relations can be tense. According to Jamie Shea, Nato's spokesperson after the conflict in Kosovo1 (1998) "winning the media campaign is as important as defeating on the army ground… The press is not an option but it is a main factor." Indeed, the press is so important because it's the only way for people to have an access to information. |
When a
government has to make an important decision, they use the media to announce
it, and to be assured of the public support. Media and military priorities are very often conflicting. In Max Hastings' opinion, a British war reporter, soldiers and media are "a badly-matched couple". They are a couple because, during a war, they always work together, but "badly-matched" because they never agree with the other. For example, soldiers are very well organized and disciplined, unlike journalists. The army prefers not to give information too early, |
in order to be sure that it won't be a danger for their operations, whereas journalists want to broadcast as quickly as possible. Moreover, soldiers give a great importance to the control of information, unlike journalists who want to say everything to the whole world. Important tensions were felt during the Vietnam War because reports by journalists led public opinion against the army. In 1975, Marshall McLuhan, an English teacher, then a writer) noticed that the war hadn't been lost on the army ground but in American families! |
 Edith Lederer joined The Associated Press in 1966. When she was sent to Saigon in 1972, Lederer became the Associated Press' first female resident correspondent in Vietnam, where she spent nine months. |
Describe
the control of the military. |
Kelly Smith Tunney joined The Associated Press in 1962 and served in more than a dozen news bureaux in the United States, Europe and Asia. In 1967, she spent nearly two months covering the Vietnam War. |
Describe
the control of the military. |
The power of public opinion
| The Vietnam War is the only example of a war where the conflict was | not only on the army ground, but also in the streets, the places and the |
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universities of the whole world. | |
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Very often, the methods used by Americans shocked people: for example, in June 8th 1972, an entire village was burned with napalm, which was totally forbidden by the Geneva Convention. This was a turning point for a little |
girl, Kim
Phuc Bui, who became famous
thank to a journalist who took a picture of her ; 75% of her body burned
because of this napalm explosion. Gradually, American leaders had some difficulties to justify the war to people. |
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| In 1967, large demonstra-tions began in the USA against the war, with the slogan "Stop the bombing" ; | there were even protest movements from soldiers. Moreover, young people acted a lot against the war. | They were really concerned by this conflict since a lot of them were fighting and dying in Vietnam. | ||
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March 16th 1967 was the darkest day of the Vietnam War for the US; in the town Mylai, more than a hundred of people including women, children and old men, were exterminated by American |
Soldiers ("les bérets verts"). Everything was done in order to keep this matter secret, but, at the end of the year, it made the headlines of all the newspapers, and especially in the USA. |
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The end of January 1968 was marked by the offensive of "Têt". North of Vietnam attacked the South by surprise though there was a truce for the Buddhist's New Year. The American army couldn't resist, so it showed that the war wasn't won yet, though the White House had considered the victory imminent. President Johnson lost his credibility, and in March 1968, he announced that he would not seek re-election. To succeed him, a lot of pacifists, from many |
different parties, stood for elections. Robert Kennedy became one of the
favourites, but he was assassinated in June 1968. Then Nixon, a war supporter,
was elected. The pressure of public opinion and protest movements forced President Johnson to start negotiations in order to take out American soldiers from South Vietnam. |
Agreements for the peace were signed on 27th January 1973. Peace and antiwar movements in the 1960's and 70's proved to be part of the most decisive factors ending the US war in Vietnam These movements existed thanks to the broadcast of information from Vietnam; so indirectly, the American government, which allowed journalists to go on the army ground, was responsible for what triggered the end of the war. |
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In the USA, a demonstration of 100, 000 people against the policy of Richard Nixon in the Vietnam War. |
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Demonstrations
against the war in front of the Pentagon
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| Even if, during the war, journalists were really free, and the people in the world were well informed, it was quite different for soldiers. Actually, they didn't really know what was happening. I have seen a | very famous film, which deals with that, Good morning Vietnam, made in 1987 by Barrie Levinson, with Robin Williams. It shows the situation inside a military camp where a young man is asked | prepare a funny chronicle every day on the radio of the base. But when he is the witness of a murder attempt in a restaurant, he wants to talk about it, about reality; at that moment, he is cut short! |
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To
conclude, we can say that the Vietnam War was really unique. Not Any war
unfolded like that One: with such freedom for the
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media and such an important role from public opinion. It influenced a lot of following press coverage like that of the war in Iraq. |
| After the scandal of the Watergate and the Vietnam War, we can notice that press has had less and less freedom. Indeed, some governments decided to exert a tighter control over the media, particularly the written press, because of the considerable influence they have on the population (- which is why the media are considered as the fourth power behind the executive, the legislative and the judiciary powers, in a democracy). This increase of the press control was obvious in many cases, and we are going to insist more particularly on the war in Iraq. As a matter of fact, we can observe that the more time went by, the more journalists had difficulties to do their job correctly; thus, | during the Vietnam war, the American Army had given much freedom to the press. Reports and photographs had shown a harsh reality: psychological problems, the death of soldiers, atrocities committed against the Vietnamese. Thus, unrest had grown in the United States, pacifist movements too. After the Vietnamese experience, during the Gulf war, in 1991, the American Army decided to " padlock " the information very strictly. Nowadays, we can remark that this " policy " of disinformation is still used, and journalists have more and more difficulties to discover and to publish information, notably in time of crisis, like the war in Iraq. | ||
The
origin of the war
| The war in Iraq is a good example to emphasize the role that the press plays in conflict time, and the control that the army can exercise on it. However, first of all, we will remind you of what the origin of the war was: the United States surmised | Iraq owned military weapons of massive destruction, missiles for example, which the Iraqi government completely denied. On the other hand, America was interested in the territory because of the oil and the strategic place of the country. So, the USA, | Supported by Great Britain, which thought the same thing as the Americans, declared war to Iraq at the beginning of the year 2003. This attack was justified by the American wish to overthrow the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein. |
Relations between journalists and the American Army.
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So, during the conflict, the journalists' rights were scoffed at. As a matter of fact, according to several reporters' statements, the American army arrested lots of journalists for spying, without any proof; or journalists were not allowed to circulate freely on the territory; or they were the targets of Americans' shootings. Indeed, on the 8th of April 2003, three journalists were killed in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, by shootings of the American Army. " Besides, the Ministry of the Information, in Baghdad, was bombed twice, while it sheltered the offices of the international media ", said Robert Ménard, general secretary of Reporters Without Borders. These events forecast the contempt of the journalists' work, whereas they risk their lives in order to inform. |
Furthermore, many journalists complained about the more and more hostile attitude of the American Army. Thus, several reporters were threatened to lose their accreditation and the right to do their jobs; they were arrested and interrogated many hours during which they were ill-treated and humiliated by the forces of the coalition: for example, a group of four journalists, two Israeli - Dan Scemama and Boaz Bismuth - and two Portuguese - Luis Castro and Victor Silva - accused the American military police of making them live " the worst forty-eight hours of their lives ". They were arrested in the night of the 25th to the 26th of March 2003; nevertheless supplied with their press' card, American soldiers declared that they were terrorists and spies, which was totally wrong. There are many other examples, like a journalist of the AFP (Agence France-Presse) | who was arrested, on the 18th of June 2003, because he had taken photos of an attack against Americans. These examples characterize the type of obstacles that journalists can meet. Moreover, there is another problem that affected reporters in Iraq: indeed, the American Army controlled their articles and photographs. As a matter of fact, only the army can decide whether articles and photographs can be published or not; The American Army wants to look after the information in order to influence the population to think the same way as the Army, contrary to what happened during the Vietnam war when the information, which Americans conveyed, had to convince the population that the war had good reasons to be, but there was the reverse effect given that many movements were created against the war. |
The attitude of the American Army is an outrage to the freedom of the press .
| The American Army was and still is an obstacle to journalists who wanted to do their job, and particularly in crisis time like the war. All the previous mentioned events show that America, like many other countries, scoff at the right to inform. Indeed, journalists, and not the American Army, are the ones who can judge, according to their professional deontology, whether the image of victims or prisoners can | be shown or not : they do not need the authorisation of the Army. This attitude is an Infraction to the Constitution of the United States, unless they modify the first amendment, voted in 1791,which stipulates that " The Congress will not establish a law curtailing the freedom of the speech or of the press " ; as a matter of fact the American Constitution resumes the principle that not any Government | can avert the expression of the freedom of the press. Although they benefit from a protection by the international right, we can notice that it less and less respected; indeed, the professionals of information do not always obtain from the belligerents a full guarantee of security; indeed the army do not want to protect journalists, because they must defend their country. |
A seriously injured journalist by American shoots
Pools : a solution for these tensions ?
| In order to face these tensions, compromises were found; so some "pools" were established for the first time during the war of the Falkland, in 1982. This system organised groups, composed of journalists and soldiers. Basically, it was made to have a certain control of the press, while | carrying on giving them an access to information. For the soldiers, it was a very good thing. But journalists disagreed with it, because it reduced them access to the army ground, and allowed soldiers to decide what reporters could see or not. But the last point was that with this system, the | journalists' security was better ensured than if they were independent. Because journalists who are completely alone can be killed by soldiers for no reasons (cf : Harrison's flowers), they can be lost… whereas if they are in a pool, they have to follow soldiers, who can protect them. |
April, 8th 2003: a journalist's camera that was hit by an American shell shooting
in Baghdad.
(photo taken by an AFP member : Patrick Baz)
| To conclude this part, we can say that the situation of journalists is not very simple, given that they cannot work correctly because of the Army's obstacles, which does not want certain information to pass. In certain cases, the army is ready to lie in order to influence the population in their way, as for example with the case of the |
American soldier Jessica Lynch: indeed, she was wounded in an ambush and she went to an Iraqi hospital; but it was said that she was a prisoner of the Iraqi Army which proved wrong because she was in a hospital having medical treatment: the press is also used as a means of propaganda. |
| All along this presentation, we wanted to show the changes in the way of conveying information, but we shall add that they did not occur in one day; on the contrary they were made in a long period - which will probably never finish. Indeed, we can notice that, nowadays, press is not as free as before the seventies because it proved to be annoying for all the governments in the world, which cannot control it anymore. We have essentially talked about the United States, and only about a little part of the situation of reporters; but it was not our |
Intention. Unfortunately, it turned out that most examples were found in the USA, but we must remember that all the countries are concerned by this kind of problems. Nowadays, the listing of the reporters who are menaced, hurt, killed… is too long. Some people and organisations try to help them and their families, and to save the freedom of the press, like "Reporters without borders", an international organisation. We should not forget that there are many other interesting aspects to study, like the censorship, the use of the media as propaganda… |
Good morning Vietnam by Barrie Levinson – 1987
Quid 2002
Encarta
Universalis
Harisson’s flowers by - 2001
Science et vie junior
La presse, la liberté hors série ( Les clés de l'actualité )
Stéphanie's synthesis :
In what way was this work special for you?
I think this presentation was a challenge for me, first because it was the first time I had worked like this, it was something new, I was not used to it ; then because I had to decide if I would do this work in French or in English and to finish with because once the choice was made, the beginnings were somewhat difficult.
How did you choose your group ?
I chose to work with Aude and Marie because they are good friends and because we had already worked together before; we knew one another and our methods and last but not least, we are from different sections at high school which permitted us to get a subject linking all the ones proposed in each section. I know our group has been effective during this work in spite of the difficulties and I believe I've played a role in it. Facing the vast subject, the first thing done was to divide the work in different parts, one for each person. According to me, my part was the easiest to do because The Watergate scandal isn't something abstract like the role of the media or the turning point of its freedom during the Vietnam War. That's why I could quickly find information on it and draw up my whole part, which let me help the other persons in the group to search some things they could not find or that they could not study well because of a lack of time.
What can you say about your topic ?
So we opted - after many changes - to study the role and the freedom of the press in crisis time. I found this subject more interesting than the others; indeed it is not "fixed", the press status always changes and this is valid for each country in the world. I did not want to work on a thing already seen by numerous persons and most of all I wanted to study something changing, evolving even if it could be difficult by the multiplicity of the aspects of the subject. Thinking it would not be so easy, we were right: the subject was too huge; we had to direct our searches many times. But finally I think that, even if we had a lot of changes brought upon our work, it offered us a new vision of the subject. I know that before this work, even if I knew a few things about the media, I never imagined there were so many things to reveal on it, so many things to learn and to tell people.
What can you say to conclude ?
I would say that I'm quite satisfied of this presentation in spite of the fact that I guess there are lots of mistakes and things left unclear.
Interview of Stephanie, who wrote the first part of this special issue
Marie's synthesis :
How did you work begin ?
First of all, I decided to do this work in English because I think it is a chance to be able to do it, even if it is sometimes a bit hard! Working in English on an interesting subject is, in my opinion, a good way to improve. The group was made quite easily, because we all wanted to work on the press. Our ideas about the written press were very large and general. At first, we wanted to study its freedom, but we really had to make choices, in front of the mountain of information we could have. Indeed, there are too many aspects to study around press. We progressively found interesting and particular events, and everything set up. Each of us had their own part; our cooperation worked very well, because everybody had something different to do, but we could help each other.
What were your part and place in the group ? What did you bring to the collective work ?
I worked on the Vietnam War. It was very interesting to work on it because I did not know that it was so special in the way to cover a war. My first job was to get in touch with the newspaper "Toutes les Nouvelles", so I called them and wrote two letters. We asked for their help to make a beautiful and thorough layout for our writing presentation; but it was eventually impossible. I also got in touch with the magazine "Phosphore" for the same reasons, but it was impossible too.They spoke about inviting us to a meeting about the magazine, but it eventually failed too. So I decided to deal with the layout. So I spent lot of time in front of my computer, and it was definitely not easy at all… but it gave me the occasion to improve myself in it. Finally, when the morale of our little troop was not so high, I tried to be optimistic enough to motivate us to carry on our work .
What did this work bring you ? What did it learn you ?
I have been very interested by this work because the press is definitely not inconsiderable, and all the problems around it, like its being used as propaganda, its freedom… are always current issues. So I learnt a lot about the press, its power… and also about journalists' lives. Working on the press, and notably reporters abroad, interested me a lot, because this job could be a possibility for my future… Perhaps as a journalist or a doctor, I would like to go in warring countries. So, within the framework of this work, I saw such a good and very well made film, Harrison's flowers, by Elie Chouraqui ; this movie deals with reporters' live during the war in Yugoslavia. It is quite hard sometimes, but also realistic, I think. It made me think of this reality, and of the importance of passing on information, and knowing what happens in our world. I also thought of what should be an experience like going in a warring country. For a closer future, I think having worked this year on a "TPE" will be useful for next year, because I have noticed what was wrong with the way I work. Finally, I really liked working in a group, because each person had their own qualities, and it brought a lot to everyone. It is always very interesting to work in a group, and it was really great to do it with Aude and Stephanie!
A word to conclude ?
I am quite proud of what we did, because, even if we have had some disappointments as the contact with the newspaper that did not work, we have reached our objective : study one of the press' aspects, and present it as a newspaper. Now we have to do our best for the oral presentation! Lastly, I am very happy to go in Netherlands to present our work!!!
Interview of Marie, who wrote the second part of this special issue
Aude's synthesis :
Why did you choose to make a presentation in English ?
Personally, at first, I did not really know what I wanted to do ; I hesitated a lot between a French and an English presentation. It was when I read the topics that I opted for the European work. Indeed, I was not at all inspired by scientific subjects in French, contrary to English ones that appeared very interesting, given that they dealt with current issues like the press. Besides, my two partners convinced me to work with them, because I was a little bit afraid to make it in English, and I thought that it was a good idea and that we could make a good job together.
How did you choose your group ?
Very simply, we were three pupils who wanted to speak about the same subject, that is to say the press and its freedom. Moreover, we are well acquainted so we decided to work on this theme, given that we were all interested in it.
Why did you want to speak about press ? Was it difficult to work on ? Why ?
I am interested in many current issues, notably in the press. I believe that it is a good theme because the rights to inform and to express oneself are not always respected, and it is a problem that concerns everybody. I wanted to know how and why this problem can exists, given that the press is very influential in our society ; that is why we decided to speak about the role of the press in crisis time. However, we took a long time to find this subject because there are so many things to say about it, and, at first, we wanted to evoke all of them, which was impossible. It was also difficult to find information on the Net. Indeed, when I searched for the role of the press during the war in Iraq, I just discover details on the war and not on the press. But I carrie on my searches and finally I found what I needed. Besides, in December, we were very disappointed by the newspaper " Toutes les Nouvelles " which had agreed to help us make our presentation under the form of a newspaper, to eventually refuse ; this fact demoralized us and then it was difficult to continue our work.
What is the result of your participation in the group ?
As early as the beginning, the work was divided in a homogeneous way so each member of the group had the same quantity of work. I think that I participated a lot in the group, like the others, but I made many things: when we had decided to contact the Washington Post, I wrote, with the help of Stéphanie, a letter and a questionnaire that I sent to the newspaper - unfortunately, journalists did not answer us; I worked on my part, but also a lot on the introduction, on the conclusion and on a comment on a poster of " Reporters without Borders ". Moreover, being a united group, we helped ourselves mutually.
Interview of Aude, who wrote the third part of this special issue