Press group says Miller case could influence Latin America

WASHINGTON — Latin America is watching the United States, long a beacon for press freedom, to see how it handles the case of jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller, leaders of the Inter-American Press Association said Wednesday.

The case could set a negative example for press freedom in Latin America, the group said.

At a news conference, Alejo Miro Quesada, president of the 1,300-member media group and also president of the Peruvian daily El Comercio, noted a guiding principle of the organization: "No journalist should be forced to reveal his or her sources."

Members met Wednesday afternoon with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to discuss shield law legislation the senator authored.

Diane Daniels, an attorney for the Washington Post who serves as the group's first vice-president, noted at the news conference that the American Bar Association announced for the first time Tuesday it was supporting a federal shield law for reporters to protect the public's access to information and promote justice.

Members of the group planned to met with Miller on Wednesday night at the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia, where she has been held since July 6 after refusing to identify her sources in the case of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame. Members said they hoped to tell Miller she is an important example to Latin American journalists.

Plame is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador who in 2003 questioned whether the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence to justify going to war with Iraq. Wilson has said the administration leaked his wife's identity as a CIA agent to the media as retaliation for his position on the Iraqi war.

Gonzalo Marroquin, a member of the Miami-based group's executive committee, said the United States has been a model for press freedoms and the outcome of Miller's case "could affect conditions in Latin America."

Marroquin, also director of the Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre, said he believes press freedom will be defended in Latin America if it is defended in the United States.

Patrina A. Bostic's e-mail address is pbostic@coxnews.com