Chipping away at the press

If you think last week's assassination of a Lebanese columnist and last week's unmasking of the world's most famous anonymous source have nothing in common, you're right.\nIn fact, the two events are so unrelated that, when considered together, they emphasize the tragically cavernous gulf that remains between a real free press and the flimsy excuse for what passes as a free press halfway around the world.\nSamir Kassir, a leading columnist for the daily An-Nahar newspaper and a staunch critic of the authoritarian Syrian government, died last week when a bomb was detonated under the driver's seat of his car in Beirut, Lebanon. He was well known for his anti-Syria positions and his criticism of the "Lebanese police state," and while no one knows for sure, his murder seems politically motivated.\nOn the flip side, W. Mark Felt, the former No. 2 man at the FBI, exposed himself to the world as "Deep Throat," the anonymous source who directed Bob Woodward and The Washington Post to the unraveling of the Nixon presidency.\nA man is praised on this side of the globe, and a man is mourned on the other. Kassir's unfortunate death should hit closer to home than you'd like. What it really means is what we've always known: you cannot have a free government without a free press.\nImagine if the tables were turned. Imagine our government, or radical loyalists with alleged government connections, killed Woodward in 1974 for daring to expose corruption and criminal activity. Imagine our justice system shrugging.\nAccording to a May 2005 report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the majority of journalists -- more than 60 percent -- who died on duty worldwide since 2000 weren't in battle or on dangerous assignments. They were murdered in retaliation for their reporting.\nIn the Philippines, for example, 18 journalists have been killed for their work in the last five years. (Coincidentally, all had reported on some form of government corruption or crime syndicates.)\nCPJ also found the majority of these murders go unpunished. CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said by failing to investigate and punish killers, governments "embolden all those who seek to silence the press through violence." Cooper calls the problem self-perpetuating but not intractable, adding "what's at stake is not only justice for those murdered but also the collective right of society to be informed."\nThe American press has its own difficulties to overcome. There are unrepentant hurdles here at home, including possible jail time for two reporters who have refused to divulge their confidential sources to federal investigators.\nYet reporters in Duluth, Minn., don't have to fear drive-by assassinations by fringe extremists. Our system of law and order, while occasionally fast and loose, is intact. We can't imagine Woodward in peril because the idea that it would happen here is so foreign to us it seems ridiculous.\nJournalism is often considered a cushy profession, and for a lot of reporters -- including this one now -- the most dangerous on-the-job hazard is a nasty paper cut. But there are hellholes where journalists risk their lives to report facts, reveal lies and espouse unpopular opinions. And whenever one of them is cut down, bit-by-bit another piece of the bedrock of journalism is chipped away.