We see as extremely dangerous and disturbing, Atty. Gen. Jeffrey B Pine’s effort to seize notes and information gathered by reporters at the Providence Journal in interviews they had with former Gov. Edward D. DiPrete, who is scheduled to go on trial early next year on charges of bribery, racketeering, extortion and perjury.
The media, as the Providence Journal argues, cannot become an investigative arm of the attorney general’s office, and must remain totally independent if it is to carry out its mission of conveying unfettered information to the public, and, at times, serving as society’s watchdog over a variety of public agencies and officials.
Attorney General Pine’s broad request shatters a level of trust between reporter and subject or source, leaving always the fear that the attorney general or some other agent of government could seek to seize records, tapes, notes of virtually any conversation someone had with a reporter. The effect is intimidation.
The press may be far from perfect, but it is the only independent source of information we have in a free society. Once that independence is violated, then it will always remain suspect.
We would suggest that Attorney General Pine should have had sufficient evidence to build a case against the former governor, without the need for reporters’ notes.
In the not-so-free world, the press is government controlled. It is among the first freedoms to fall. But in a free society we need a free press, one that is not threatened by government access to its notes or records or by government intervention of any kind.
