ONE SAYS THEY'RE 'CHILLING' JOURNALISTS DETAIL CONTACTS WITH CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R002000090100-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2004
• Sequence Number: 100
• Publication Date: February 25, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Rele
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One Says They're ?Chiiling'
urncdists e
iitcicts
By Hank. Sato ;
A Central Intelligence Agency
agent might be just another news
source in a foreign country but deal-
ing with one could have a "chilling"
effect, Richard Halloran, a New
York Times reporter. told a Round
Table on Asian News at the East-
West Center yesterday.
Halloran said CIA agents are re-
. quired to report everything to their
superiors and that if he exchanges
information with an agent "it's chill-
ing" to realize that "my name gets
on file and sent to Washington."
"And God knows what they do
with it over there," he said.
Halloran, who now works in Wash-
ington but was for many years a
correspondent in Asia, was one of
three reporters who discussed prob-
lems faced by newsmen based in for-
eign countries.
THE PROGRAM, which continued
today, is sponsored by the Frank E.
Gannett Fellowship Program in
Asian Studies and the University of
Hawaii. Gannett fellows study at the
University of Hawaii under grants
awarded by the Gannett Newspaper
Foundation. -
Also on the panel were Keyes
Beech, Asian correspondent for the
Chicago Daily News for the last 30
years, and Dennis Bloodworth, Far
East correspondent of the London
Observer. Bloodworth has been in
Asia since 1954.
Halloran said he ,Erected' CIA
agents as news sources but did not.
cooperate in gathering intelligences
information.
Approved
BEECH SAID HE often found CIA
agents make better news sources in
foreign countries than officials of
U.S. embassies.
"They are objective, intelligent
and congenial," he said, "and are
less wedded to the party line (official
U.S. policy)."
He said, "There is always danger
that the CIA will try to use you" but
:that it would be "unnatural for
correspondents to avoid CIA
sources. We are both in the business
of gathering information. "
"It's a question' of how far you
should go. I would frown on anything
that went beyond the dialogue."
Beech, a former Star-Bulletin re-
porter, told about a story he once
filed from South Korea about the tor-
turing of prisoners. He said the
source of that story was a CIA agent
who was- "in a turmoil" over such
activities.
- HE SAID publication of the story
created some friction between the
United States and Korea because the
Korean Central Intelligence Agency
"surmised" that a CIA agent was its
source.'
Beech added, however, that corre-
spondents should try not to be con-
cerned about what repercussions
-their stories may have.
He also told of a story that the CIA
tried to kill "after I sat on it for 19
years.,.
The story was about two Ameri-
cans,. John T. Downey and Richard
Fectau, who flew to China in 1952 to
rescue an American spy. Unknown
to them, the spy was- also working
for the Peking government as a dou-
ble agent.
Downey and Fectau were cap-
tured, tried as spies and, sent to
prison. .. _ , .9i' . .11
At that time. Beech had confirm a:
tion from American sources that the
two men were CIA agents but he did
not write the story for fear it would {
further jeopardize the men. ..
He said he wrote the story about
the time one of the agents was to be
released after spending 20 years in
prison. The other agent was serving
a life term, he said.
HE SAID WHEN the CIA learned
of the story an agent went to his
Hong Kong hotel room and asked
him not to run the story.
Beech said he told the agent that
he would if the CIA had good rea-
sons why the story should not run.
,"They had no reason," he said.
He said that after the story was
cabled to his Chicago office, Richard
Helms, then director of the CIA,
called his editor and urged him to
kill the story. But the editor refused,
Beech said.
During a question and answer ses-
sion, Beech said the CIA tried to re-
cruit him in 1954 when he was in
Hong Kong but that he refused.
"If you accept money (from the
CIA) then you have.sold your soul,"
he said. "You have lost your integ-
rity -- perhaps the only thing a
correspondent has going for him."
BLOODWORTH SAID he, too, was,
-,recruited by a secret service agency
but not by the CIA.
He said overtures were made
"more than once" by the KGB of the
Soviet Union, adding that foreign
correspondents of the Tass Soviet
News Agency are trained secret.
service agents.-
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Bloodworth said he has sat
through "briefings" by CIA agents
but have not worked with them.
"Get a briefing but don't report
back (to the agents)," he said.
Bloodworth, a British subject, said
he probably has less contacts with
the British secret service than
Americans have with the CIA be-
cause the British service is much
more secretive than the CIA.
"They're so secretive you may
think you're dealing with diplo-
mats," he said.
ON ANOTHER subject, the three
panelists agreed that a correspond-
ent need not know the language of a?
foreign country to report intelligent-
ly from there.
?'A good reporter is a good one
anywhere," Beech said. He said
Rose Monroe, a Canadian, "does the
best reporting from China" but does
not know Chinese.
Halloran said he would stress
basic reportorial abilities if he were
to'hire a correspondent to send to a I ''I
foreign country. .
He added that the reporter should
be "stceped in the history of the
country" to which he is being assign-
ed and must have a good back-
ground of its literature, religion and
politics.
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