The Freest Press Money Can Buy?

This gives me the creeps.--Dictynna


By William Fisher
Inter Press Services

Thursday 29 December 2005

New York - Amid undenied charges that the Pentagon is paying Iraqi journalists to write "good news" stories about the country's progress, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced a new international exchange program for journalists named for famed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and emphasizing "the democratic principles that guided Mr. Murrow's practice of his craft - integrity and ethics and courage and social responsibility".

"We all know that the bedrock pillar of a free society is a free press and that it is crucial for the foundation of any democracy," Rice said.

The new initiative - The Edward R. Murrow Journalism Program - is a partnership of the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the non-partisan Aspen Institute, and the journalism schools of six US universities.