A Trick of Press Freedom?

The
America has been long regarded as a model of a democratic country. However, Scooter Libby’s accusation of perjury has challenged the
America’s perfect democratic image in my mind. 

Scooter Libby, who was the U.S. Vice Present’s chief of staff, is now on trial for perjury. He was accused of conducting perjury when being testified about whether he had leaked an undercover officer’s identity to a reporter in New York Times. Michael Kinsley expressed his resentful feelings towards this accusation in his article Free Scooter Libby in last week’s Time magazine. Kinsley regards the accusation towards Libby is an unfair treatment and argued that the government should protect and encourage leaks. 

I agree with Kinsley on the point that Libby is a martyr of the press freedom in the
America. People need leaks to keep the government honest in a democratic country. Even though in this case it is far from keeping the government honest, however, as a leaker, Libby should still be protected instead of being questioned whether he had leak Plame identity to anyone. I think it is unreasonable to force him to choose between committing perjury and revealing information he should never been asked for. Although Libby is “charged with perjury, not with the leak itself”, it is, in my eyes, a cunningly tactical way of interfering journalism freedom.  

Hence, in this case the press freedom seems to be squashed to some extent by the
U.S. government in the name of “perjury”. The American media have always criticized
China for a lack of democracy, especially in the journalism freedom. However, this time I’d like to suggest the America examine himself first before rebuking
China’s journalism for a lack of freedom.                                                                                                                           

~ by anniexf on February 26, 2007.