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Investigative Journalism in the USA- Part Two

[May 17, 2004]

See also: Investigative Journalism in the USA- Part One

Judges and policemen don't like journalists

After investigative reporting, the second most complex department at the Star-Telegram is the department of legal and judicial issues. In Fort Worth, some sixty to seventy car accidents happen every year, and about the same number of crimes are committed. Deanna Boyd, who reports on criminal matters, doesn't think this figure is particularly high, and says that Fort Worth is a quiet city in terms of crime. Unusual murders, however, do take place. In order to follow the crime situation, Boyd uses a scanner to listen to the police communicate over the radio. It can't, of course, be tuned in to the frequency that policemen use to keep professional secrets from journalists. Although policemen don't trust the press, Boyd says they duly provide journalists with information.

There is a special room for journalists at the city police department, where every crime reporter has a box for documents. Every morning, police reports on the events that occurred over night are placed in these boxes. Boyd says that her readers like stories about about murder: "I tell the story the way it happened, to make sure that the reader gets a clear picture of reality. If the story is too awful, I put a warning for the reader at the beginning of the article."

Max Baker, another reporter who covers legal and judicial issues, also writes difficult stories-about prisoners, death-row inmates, etc. In general, as even judges here attest, sentencing in Texas is very severe. The death penalty is frequently applied- for murdering a child under six years of age, for double murder, for murdering a policeman, a fireman or an officer of the court while performing professional duty, for contract killing, kidnapping, and committing murder during a robbery.

Sharon Wilson, a Fort Worth criminal judge, handed down eleven death sentences during her thirteen years on the bench (in fact, in the United States, a jury decides whether to sentence a defendant to death or not, and the judge just affirms the verdict).

Five out of the eleven sentences have already been carried out, and Wilson is convinced that they were just. But another judge, George Gallagher, is unreservedly opposed to capital punishment, although as Max Baker attests, the majority of Texans are for the death penalty; they are guided by the principle "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". Max Baker doesn't believe that capital punishment reduces the number of crimes in Texas , for "people never think about the punishment before they commit the crime."

Although trials are open to the public in Texas, the rights of journalists are limited. It is the judge who decides whether to allow taping, filming, or taking pictures or not. Max Baker says that the majority of judges tend not to give journalists such "privileges", so as not to turn the courtroom into a "circus". We met George Gallagher, one of the rare judges who are well-disposed to journalists, in the courtroom, as he was amicably explaining to a man accused of murder what crime he was charged with, and what the punishment could be. According to Max Baker, this judge never turns journalists away, as was confirmed by our own experience.

Freedom of information is endangered in the United States

American journalists acknowledge that since September 11, 2001, they encounter difficulties in obtaining information on government actions. "We can't get documents from the departments of defense and homeland security," says Lois Norder, the editor of the Star-Telegram's investigative department. "Every time they are able to argue that the provision of such information may constitute a threat to the state, or that people can can use the information for attacking the country, they can turn us down. It's becoming more and more difficult to get information. Of course, it's understandable that they try to protect the state, but as a result, we are unable to verify whether the government's decisions are correct, or whether our money is being spent efficiently. The main thing is, the government doesn't want us to know what it's doing." All the journalists I met say that the American people support the government's actions, because they are afraid of terrorism.

"Journalists write a lot that freedom of press and information is threatened by national security, but people are frightened, and they concede their civil rights to security," says reporter Mike Lee. The Patriot Act, adopted after the terrorist attacks in New York , preclude journalists from getting information about foreign citizens who have been arrested.

"This Act was supposed to prevent terrorism, but in fact it is limiting human rights - something for which the US has always criticized other countries. It is possible now in the United States to suspect everyone, to arrest everyone without informing anybody, without preferring charges. When journalists criticize this, they are accused of being unpatriotic," says Dianna Hunt, a Star-Telegram editor. Jim Lane , a city council member, is angry about it: "They are Nazis in Washington .I don't approve of Bush' policies. Freedom of the press is the most important thing, and its impact will be seen in November during the presidential election. People don't understand that the less freedom there is, the less security we have. Politicians here hate the press and they fight against it through various 'acts'," Lane concludes.

The US Freedom of Information Act is considered one of the best in the world. Nevertheless, American journalists are convinced that federal laws are more like declarations, and state laws are more effective. State laws define concrete deadlines for providing information (in Texas - ten days). But there is another thing that makes it hard to get information. A journalist in America pays for both the copy of a document and the time spent by an official to prepare the information in question. "For small newspapers it's very hard, because it's impossible to control how much time a bureaucrat spends on preparing a certain document," Mike Lee says. Once editor Dianna Hunt was asked to pay $60 million to get a certain piece of information, and only after the Governor of Texas interceded was the information in question provided for a symbolic fee.

The privacy of people's personal life is also endangered in the United States. "There is no personal privacy left since September 11th," Mike Lee explains. "The security services gather a huge amount of information but they don't have time to process it, and the information gathering becomes meaningless."

Jeff Claassen, a member of the Star-Telegram investigative team who deals mainly with obtaining and analyzing information, showed us a number of internet sites where you can find out anything about anyone - his or her credit history, driver's license information, criminal record, marital status, etc. But Claassen maintains that people in the United States aren't worried about what the government knows about them: "Most of them don't even know that this data is available on the Internet."

The Star-Telegram investigative team is looking into non-transparent actions by the government. "In this project, we will examine what is inaccessible, unattainable for a journalist. We'll try to find out what is considered a state secret, and whether it is a state secret, what its impact is on society, whether it is useful or harmful, and what people think about it," Lois Norder says.

The Star-Telegram reporters say that some subjects are taboo in American society. "Journalists are almost unable to report on the affairs of the Church. Texas is in the Bible Belt. There are a lot of spiritual, pious people living here," Lois Norder explains. "But at the same time, there are quite a number of 'false ministers' who swindle people, collect donations in the name of God, and spend this money to build themselves houses and buy airplanes. But it's hard to criticize the ministers, since the faithful think that reporters are criticizing God."

Liana Sayadyan
Yerevan-Fort Worth