By Marc Charisse
York Daily Record/Sunday News (York, Pa.)
Oct. 07, 2005
Excerpt:
[T]wo part-time correspondents for York County newspapers
were ready to get locked up to protect the principle of journalistic
independence. Joe Maldonado of the York Daily Record/Sunday News and Heidi Bernhard-Bubb of The York Dispatch
were threatened with contempt of court if they refused to testify in
the federal trial now under way in the Dover “intelligent design” case.[…]
It’s not that the correspondents have anything to hide. Under a judge’s
order this week, they are willing to stand by their stories in open
court.But the correspondents and their newspapers feared more wide-ranging
questions could forever compromise their ability to cover the case.As a matter of principle, newspapers regularly fight subpoenas because
we can’t afford to be seen as taking one side or the other in civil
court cases. And in criminal cases, we don’t want to be perceived as
agents of the police and prosecutors on whom the public expects us to
keep a watchful eye.It’s a principled position the public often misunderstands. But we
believe that to serve the public, we must protect our independence.If we are to report on official misconduct or, say, drug use among
teenagers, we must be able to protect sources that include
whistleblowers afraid for their jobs and even lawbreakers themselves.
This in no way hampers official investigations; it just asks
investigators and attorneys to do their jobs without any special help
from us.