Features
Freedom of Expression and of the Press
Many are the voices of protest against the threat to democracy and free speech by the government’s recent Online Safety Act No. 09 of 2024, and the Anti-Terrorism Bill. Much has been written and said about both. The recent Bill was to increase its draconian strictures and punishments.
The ongoing suppression by the US government on protests in universities across the country against Israel and its genocide in Gaza, and counter protests by pro-Israel students is bringing up debates on freedom of gathering together and protesting.
Infamous happening: noted film
I dare not comment on any of the issues mentioned above. But with thoughts of suppression and constant protests in Colombo and elsewhere, I opted to re-see the 2017 film
The Post,directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, starring Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham – the Washington Post’s owner and publisher – and Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, executive editor of the paper.
Set in 1971 it is the true story of attempts by journalists at the Washington Post to publish the infamous Pentagon Papers, a set of classified documents regarding the 20 year involvement of the US in the Vietnam War and earlier in French Indo China in the 1940s. The classified papers prove the guilt of all Presidents from John F Kennedy to Richard Nixon and their Secretaries of State. The uproar was triggered off by the US State Department commissioning analyst Daniel Ellsberg to go stay in Vietnam and study conditions of the American armed forces. He documents the reality of the war and concludes the war is hopeless. Back in the US, the Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara agrees but nothing is done; further deployments of soldiers to certain death continues.
After his mission, Ellsberg worked for the RAND Corporation, a think tank with access to classified information. He copies thousands of classified pages documenting long term interference in Vietnam from Truman’s time and then leaks the papers to the New York Times. The Washington Post too gets hold of the papers and Bradlee is determined to publish what is severely anti-government. This is with Richard Nixon as Prez. Graham holds back as all in the higher ranks of government are her social network. However, she gives the word to publish and then the resulting uproar. Her consent, to me, shows her commitment to truth and fearlessness, in plain language – country before self.
The film ends with a camera shot of Nixon in silhouette, phoning to say that Washington Post journos are not to be allowed in the White House. Then is shown a night guard at a DC hotel and office complex noticing a suspiciously taped exit door. This was June 17, 1972, and thus the investigation into the break-in to the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee which finally results in the resignation of Prez Richard. M. Nixon before he was impeached.
Second Post exposure and film
Just a year after the publication of the Pentagon Papers, two Washington Post reporters: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein brought the Watergate story to Bradlee – what their source ‘Deep Throat’ had divulged to them. Katherine Graham promoted the investigative journalistic search and permitted Bradlee to publish reports on the Watergate scandal. Other newspapers were wary of such publishing with Nixon embroiled fully. Katharine Graham backed the two reporters and editor fully, though again it was against many in her social set; and dangerous.
Graham and editor Bradlee first experienced threats of censorship, government disapproval after initial doubts and fears of publishing the contents of the Pentagon Papers. Then it was the Watergate scandal. A story worth mentioning is the remark, really threat, Nixon’s Attorney General, John Mitchell, warned reporter Carl Bernstein about the Post’s expected Watergate exposure. “Katie Graham’s gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that’s published.” The Post published the quote probably pushed on by Katharine Graham, although Bradlee deleted the words about a part of her body. She later observed: “It’s especially strange of Mitchell to call me Katie, which no one has ever called me.” This was all in 1972
The biographical political drama thriller film about the Watergate scandal was directed by Alan J Pakula based on the 1974 book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The film All the President’s Men was released in 1978, starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford as Bernstein and Woodward respectively. Jason Robards plays Ben Bradlee. Katharne Graham is not portrayed in the film, although originally she had wanted a scene with her questioning one of the reporters “What are you doing with my paper?”
Nominated in multiple Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA categories, it won many awards. In 2010, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Repository by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.
Remarkable woman
It is interesting to note a couple of facts about this remarkable woman, Katherine Graham. Born in New York to Alsatian Jewish father Eugene Meyer and Lutheran American socialite mother on June 16, 1917, Katharine Meyer lived a wealthy, privileged life entering Vassar College and then the University of Chicago. Her financier father proceeded from being Chairman, Federal Reserve, to Head of the World Bank. In 1933 he bought the Washington Post (WP) when its owning company went bankrupt.
Katharine married Philip Graham, graduate of Harvard Law School and clerk to a Supreme Court judge in 1940. Her father bequeathed the WP to his son-in-law in 1946, which Katharine said she did not mind at all. Philip however was alcoholic and suffered mental illnesses. He committed suicide in 1963 aged 48. Katharine, though inexperienced, took over chairmanship of the WP and became de facto publisher from September 1963. She was its formal publisher from 1969 to 1979 and chairwoman of the Board from 1973 to 1991. In 1972 she became CEO of the Washington Post Company – the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. In 1998 she received the Pulitzer Prize for her autobiography, Personal History, published the previous year. Professionally wise moves include selecting Benjamin Bradlee as editor and cultivating Warren Buffet for financial advice. He became a major shareholder.
Son Donald was publisher form 1979 to 2000. On July 14, Katharine fell and struck her head while visiting Sun Vale, Idaho. She died three days later, aged 84.
The focus of this article is not the two films described nor extraordinary Katharine Graham who changed from privileged housewife and socialite to be an intrepid publisher of a newspaper that stood for truth and making it known, whatever the consequences.
Then what is the focus, the reader may ask. It is media freedom. Fortuitously, Lynn Ockersz’s article Lukewarm reactions to targeting and killing of journalists is centre-paged in
The Island of May 9. He starts with the world’s present two war zones and writes that most governments chose to be silent in the face of the loss of life of journalists. “Since the free press is a principal factor to the furtherance of democracy, which in turn ensures the thriving of people’s rights, the life of a journalist in a democracy could be considered priceless.”
The press publication of the Pentagon Papers and report on probe into the Watergate break-in went through with no death to journalists even though times were bad in the US with Nixon as President. We in Sri Lanka grieved death, torture and chasing away journalists and most persons remained silent. It looks to be that the populace is more alert now. We hope so.