Reply #15: Europeans join campaign to free jailed US journalist (Judith Miller) [View All]

[sabra]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article307976.ece

Europeans join campaign to free jailed US journalist

Leading figures from the arts and media in Europe have joined forces to appeal to Washington for the release of Judith Miller, the veteran New York Times reporter who yesterday marked her 50th day in prison for refusing to testify in the inquiry into the leaking of the identity of the CIA operative Valerie Plame.

"At a time when the most extremist ideas are gaining ground, and when growing numbers of reporters are being killed or taken hostage, arresting a journalist in a democratic country is more than a crime: it's a miscarriage of justice," the group said. Its 27 members include the Spanish film director, Pedro Almódovar, the German literary Nobel laureate, Gunther Grass, and the former chief BBC reporter, Kate Adie.

Ms Miller was sent to a federal prison in the Virginia suburbs outside Washington DC on 6 July for refusing to reveal her sources in the case of Ms Plame, whose identity as a CIA agent was revealed to American journalists in 2003, apparently in violation of federal law.

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Democrats said Ms Plame's name was leaked by the White House in retaliation against her husband, ambassador Joseph Wilson, who wrote an article in The New York Times accusing the Bush team of overstating the evidence regarding Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction.