February 1, 1973
Page 3021
FREE PRESS AND THE PUBLIC'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, events of recent days have once again dramatized this administration's campaign against the public's right to know. The first amendment's protection of freedom of the press is designed to safeguard our right to a free flow of information, by prohibiting Government action which has a chilling effect on the free press. Whether the press is right or wrong, the Constitution, our courts, and generations of Americans have accepted the principle that reporters should have confidence to write about public issues without fear of reprisal.
I was distressed to learn of the FBI's arrest yesterday of a reporter who said he was merely performing his job – reporting the facts. This action appears to be the latest in a disturbing trend of administration actions designed to chill the freedom, independence, and imagination of our free press. This trend began with the 1968 campaign and has taken many forms – intimidation of network news makers, apparent vindictiveness toward our nascent but creative public broadcasting system, threats of politically motivated broadcast licensing decisions, and the unprecedented imprisonment of news reporters who refuse to disclose unreported information or their news sources.
We will not know all the facts behind yesterday's arrest until they are brought out in court and, of course, we cannot yet pass judgment on this case. But preliminary reports indicate that by its action the administration has opened up a new front in its campaign against the first amendment.
National security was admittedly not involved and no complicity in the theft of Government documents has been alleged. From what we now know, this arrest opens the possibility that a statute designed to prevent criminal traffic in stolen property will in the future be used to stop reporters from investigating and disclosing any information that the Government wishes to hide.
The media are not always accurate, always objective, or always fair. But they must be free to write and report what in their judgment deserves to be said. And they must be free from fear that an angry administration will take vindictive measures against them.
To me, the mounting administration campaign against our free press is of greatest concern. I was pleased that the Democratic caucus yesterday unanimously endorsed a thorough freedom-of-the- press investigation by the Judiciary Committee. I hope that the planned investigation will, indeed, study each of the issues I have raised and will recommend to us with dispatch concrete measures we can take to protect the free press and the public's right to know.