DJV Condemns Imprisonment of NY Times Reporter

The Deutscher Journalisten-Verband in Bonn has issued a press release condemning the imprisonment of New York Times reporter Judith Miller:

‘Die Inhaftierung der New York Times-Journalistin Judith Miller ist ein harter Schlag gegen die Pressefreiheit’, sagte DJV-Bundesvorsitzender Michael Konken. Er nahm damit Stellung zur Festnahme der Journalistin am gestrigen Mittwoch. ‘Es ist skandalös, dass die amerikanische Regierung auf diese Weise versucht, Frau Miller zum Verrat ihres Informanten zu zwingen.’ Wesentlicher Bestandteil freier Berichterstattung sei der Informantenschutz, sagte Konken. ‘Judith Miller muss unverzüglich auf freien Fuß gesetzt werden.’

This is yet another instance of the erosion of the US constitution. The Bush Administration blew the cover of a CIA agent in order to punish her husband – Ambassador Joe Wilson – for casting doubt on the WMD claims made by President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union Address.  Here is Joe Wilson’s response to the Judy Miller imprisonment published on the TPM Cafe group blog:

The sentencing of Judith Miller to jail for refusing to disclose her sources is the direct result of the culture of unaccountability that infects the Bush White House from top to bottom.  President Bush’s refusal to enforce his own call for full cooperation with the Special Counsel has brought us to this point.  Clearly, the conspiracy to cover up the web of lies that underpinned the invasion of Iraq is more important to the White House than coming clean on a serious breach of national security.  Thus has Ms Miller joined my wife, Valerie, and her twenty years of service to this nation as collateral damage in the smear campaign launched when I had the temerity to challenge the President on his assertion that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium yellowcake from Africa.

The real victims of this cover-up, which may have turned criminal, are the Congress, the Constitution and, most tragically, the Americans and Iraqis who have paid the ultimate price for Bush’s folly.