To the Editor:
Re “Challenge to President and His View of News” (news article, Feb. 2):
At the White House, President Trump submits to questioning by The New York Times about his threats to the news media. His answers are for the most part a litany of vague personal grievances. The same day, across town, in the United States District Court in Washington, Judge Amy Berman Jackson speaks to an altogether different order of values.
Her award of $302.5 million against President Bashar al-Assad for Syria’s targeted assassination of the war reporter Marie Colvin (news article, Feb. 1) is nothing less than a resounding exposition of the necessity of a free press and the courage of individual journalists who embody it.
The next time that President Trump is asked to account for his reckless incitements against “enemies of the people,” he should be pressed to have the United States at last join the 174 countries that have ratified Article 79 of the Geneva Conventions for the protection of journalists and the additional Protocol 1.
And that’s only a start in following Judge Jackson’s lead. Nine out of every 10 of the killers of journalists have never been investigated.
Harold Evans
Quogue, N.Y.
The writer is a former editor of The Sunday Times (London) and The Times of London.
Source: Read Full Article
Home » Analysis & Comment » Opinion | Trump and a Free Press
Opinion | Trump and a Free Press
To the Editor:
Re “Challenge to President and His View of News” (news article, Feb. 2):
At the White House, President Trump submits to questioning by The New York Times about his threats to the news media. His answers are for the most part a litany of vague personal grievances. The same day, across town, in the United States District Court in Washington, Judge Amy Berman Jackson speaks to an altogether different order of values.
Her award of $302.5 million against President Bashar al-Assad for Syria’s targeted assassination of the war reporter Marie Colvin (news article, Feb. 1) is nothing less than a resounding exposition of the necessity of a free press and the courage of individual journalists who embody it.
The next time that President Trump is asked to account for his reckless incitements against “enemies of the people,” he should be pressed to have the United States at last join the 174 countries that have ratified Article 79 of the Geneva Conventions for the protection of journalists and the additional Protocol 1.
And that’s only a start in following Judge Jackson’s lead. Nine out of every 10 of the killers of journalists have never been investigated.
Harold Evans
Quogue, N.Y.
The writer is a former editor of The Sunday Times (London) and The Times of London.
Source: Read Full Article