The Jewish Telegraphic Agency formally protested today to Secretary of State Dean Rusk against the exclusion of its Washington correspondent from a State Department briefing on the Arab refugee question and asked that measures be taken to ensure against a recurrence of the discrimination.
The JTA correspondent, Milton Friedman, was denied admission to a press conference on January 28 by Robert C. Strong, director of the State Department’s Office of Near Eastern Affairs. Mr. Strong said he took objection to JTA reporting of news involving State Department policies and complained that Israeli diplomats had used JTA news reports as the basis for queries of his department.
The protest, made in the name of the JTA’s Board of Directors and signed by Philip Slomovitz, vice-president of the Agency, pointed out that the act of discrimination against JTA by an official of the Department of State “served to deprive large segments of the American Jewish community of information made public by the Department in which they were specially concerned and in which it was in the best interests of American policy that they be fully informed.”
The letter also stressed concern that “such acts of discrimination not be repeated and that representatives of this agency should not be barred from access to news being made available to other information media. We are likewise deeply concerned,” it added, “over what certainly appears in this case to be an attempt to control the news by denying access to newsmen whose dispatches may not please officials involved.”
ARBITRARY DENIAL TO U. S. JEWS OF STATE DEPARTMENT VIEW STRESSED
The JTA protest to the Secretary of State also stressed that “we believe that it is not only a discrimination against the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that is involved here, but also a limitation on the freedom of the press. We consider it a disservice to American interests on the whole, that there be interference with the free and untrammeled flow of information.
“In this case, an element of the American citizenry which has a special interest in the problem considered at the press conference was arbitrarily denied an expression of the State Department’s views,” the protest continued. “The Jewish Telegraphic Agency directly serves some 70 newspapers in the United States and several thousand Jewish organizations and individuals. In addition, it is a major source of information on developments in this country concerning them to Jewish communities in almost every country of the free world.”
The letter noted that the JTA had enjoyed “the consistently friendly and helpful relationship we have had at the State Department over a number of years, particularly with the News Division of the Bureau of Public Affairs, its director, Mr. Lincoln White, and his deputy, Mr. Joseph Reap. We trust that this misunderstanding which we regret to have to call to your attention, will be cleared up,” the letter said.
Mr. Slomovitz, publisher and editor of the Detroit Jewish News, is presiding officer of the JTA during the absence in Europe of its president, Eleazar Lipsky.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
