Judith Miller is a former reporter for The New York Times and author of four books on the Middle East, biological weapons and the Holocaust. For information on her prosecution for refusing to reveal sources to federal prosecutors, see the news section of this Web site or the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.



In this section:

• Judy Speaks in Brazil

• Iraqi Militants Becoming Citizens

• Intelligent Policing Comes to New Jersey

• Best of the Web -- I've Got a Secret

• The Other Terrorism

• WHAT I LEARNED AT 'ANTI-JIHAD U'

• FBI VS. THE NYPD: Behind the Latest Flap

• Anti-terrorism in paradise: Lacking funds and manpower, Bratton's war on terror is based on the principle of sharing.

• From the Shores of Tripoli

• Book Review: George Tenet's At the Center of the Storm






Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War
by Judith Miller, William Broad, Stephen Engelberg
Simon & Schuster, 2001




God Has Ninety-Nine Names: A Reporter's Journey Through a Militant Middle East
by Judith Miller
Simon & Schuster, 1996




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Memo on Italian award

Viareggio, Italy, Nov. 29, 2005

Hello friends:

I have just returned from Italy where the Unione Nazionale Cronisti Italiani, UNCI, Italy’s largest union representing some 2,000 news reporters and editors, honored me for helping to preserve a free press by spending 85 days in jail to protect the confidentiality of sources.

On Monday, I traveled to the beautiful seaside town of Viareggio, in Tuscany, to accept the tribute at UNCI’s annual meeting, which was attended by almost 200 reporters and editors from throughout Italy. UNCI is Italy’s the most important union for news reporters and editors in print, radio, and television.

“We know her case is controversial,” Illaria Bonuccelli, the union’s vice president, told the journalists at this year’s meeting and awards ceremony. “But we wanted to pay tribute to Judy Miller’s sacrifice and her efforts to protect the critical relationship between reporters and their sources.”

Ms. Bonuccelli, herself an award-winning investigative reporter for the daily paper, Il Tirreno, said this was the first time that the union had ever honored a foreign reporter.

“Our members are often sued, threatened, and sometimes sent to jail,” she told me. “So we understand the sacrifice you made for the free flow of information.”

Although the union had not taken a formal vote, she said, an informal survey of her colleagues suggested that an overwhelming majority hoped that the U.S. Congress would enact a Federal shield law to protect reporters from being required to testify about confidential sources in civil and criminal proceedings. She said she would urge her fellow union members to make their views known to the U.S. Senate and Congress.

At the awards ceremony, Ms. Bonuccelli presented me with a bronze statue of Pegasus, the mythical winged horse, designed by “Marinsky,” the London-born sculptor who has worked for many years in Italy. Marinsky’s work has been collected worldwide, and his bronzes have been become part of the Florence Art Gallery’s permanent collection. His statues are inspired by the culture of Italian and in particular, of Tuscany, where he has lived and worked for many years.

If you are an opera lover and find yourself in Tuscany in summer, you might want to take in Viareggio’s celebrated Puccini Festival, where works of the maestro are performed each year in July and August in an open-air theatre overlooking a lake and next to a villa where he composed. Though born in Luca, Puccini wrote most of his most beloved operas here. He is buried at the villa.



Allbest,

Judy

Posted by Judith Miller | December 08, 2005


N.Y. Observer article on WMD

New York Observer, Nov. 28, 2005

Rethinking Miller: Was She So Bad?

By Niall Stanage

Sometimes the smoke of battle has to clear before vital issues can be seen. So it is with the Judith Miller affair. . . .

The visceral hatred felt for Ms. Miller in some quarters stems from the controversy over her W.M.D. reporting in the run-up to the war in Iraq. The gravest charge is that she shed her critical faculties, parroting the Bush administration’s claims as though their veracity was beyond question.

She didn’t. . . .

Original article

Posted by Judith Miller | December 08, 2005


Miller Presses for Shield Law, Gets Warm Ovation in Vegas

Associated Press, Oct. 28, 2005

LAS VEGAS (AP) New York Times reporter Judith Miller defended her decision to go to jail to protect a source and told a journalism conference Tuesday that reporters need a federal shield law so that others won't face the same sanctions.

Miller was jailed 85 days for refusing to reveal the source who disclosed the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame.

"Ultimately we protect sources so people will come forth -- so people will know," she told the national conference of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Miller received a standing ovation from more than half the crowd of about 350 journalists when she was presented with the group's First Amendment Award. . . .

Original article

October 18, 2005


Famed attorney calls for shield laws

Barbara Ferry | The New MexicanMay 15, 2005

Reporters, who rely on confidential sources to do their job, need a federal "shield law' to protect them from being forced to testify in court and reveal their sources, the nation's top First Amendment lawyer told an assembly of journalists, media lawyers and others Saturday.

Floyd Abrams, who has been at the center of media battles for more than 30 years, spoke at the annual meeting of the Freedom of Information Coalition at the Hotel St. Francis.

. . .

Abrams is currently representing New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper, both of whom have been subpoenaed in a federal investigation into a leak of the identity of a covert CIA officer.

Miller and Cooper have been held in contempt of court for their refusal to reveal their sources, Abrams said, and face up to 18 months in jail. Abrams has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

While nearly every state provides journalists with some level of protection from being forced to testify in court, Abrams said, there is no similar federal law.

The United States enjoys a freer press than many countries, he said, but the lack of protection for reporters in gathering information from confidential sources is the exception, despite an American tradition of not revealing sources that goes back to such notable figures as Ben Franklin.

If the Supreme Court does not side with the press in the Miller-Cooper case or if the Court refuses to hear the case, the press should seek a law in Congress to protect journalists, he said.

Otherwise, he said, "we will be sending journalists out into situations where they are continually in great peril with no protection if they do what they're told to do."

Full article

Posted by Joshua Tanzer | May 18, 2005