Board member knocks NPR support of reporter in child-porn case
Originally published in Current, July 27, 1998
By Jacqueline ConciatoreAn NPR Board member has publicly criticized NPR management's decision to support the First Amendment claims of Larry Matthews, a freelance journalist for NPR and other outlets, who on July 6 [1998] pleaded guilty to two charges of trafficking in child pornography over the Internet. Matthews' lawyer, who will appeal the court's decision, says the reporter traded the photos while researching for reports about child pornography on the Net.
At least one additional NPR Board member has concerns about the network's position, while others endorse what NPR did, according to a source close to the board.
NPR, along with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Radio-Television News Directors Association, in March filed an amicus curiae brief supporting Matthews' right to present evidence of his newsgathering as a First Amendment defense in the case. The D.C. and Maryland affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union have also filed briefs arguing for a First Amendment defense.
But U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr., ruled that Matthews could not invoke the First Amendment. "The law is clear that a press pass is not a license to break the law," the Judge wrote, according to the Washington Post.
Matthews' lawyer, Michael Statham, says he will appeal the case to the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after the sentencing, scheduled for December. He will ask the judge to allow Matthews to remain free during the appeal process, he said.
The board member critical of NPR's position on the case, Chase Untermeyer, is a political conservative and, as public affairs director for Compaq Computer Corp., part of an industry that adamantly opposes added regulation of the Internet.
"You have to be alert to the political realities of the way the public views the Internet," Untermeyer said to Current. "A good part of the public views [it] as a conveyance for child porn." NPR associating itself with the matter "strengthens the case of those who would like to regulate the Net," he said.
Untermeyer also complains that NPR associated its "name and prestige" with the case without first notifying the board. "I do not view Matthews' case as public radio's fight, let alone NPR's fight," he told Current. "Matthews is not our employee [and] he's not writing a story for public radio."
The Matthews case was not on the agenda for the board's July 22-23 board meeting, but "obviously it's the kind of issue that we want to keep the board well-informed about," NPR spokesperson Siriol Evans said last week.
Despite Untermeyer's complaints, NPR says it has its board's support. "NPR supports the rights of journalists to gather information to the fullest extent afforded by the First Amendment," said Evans. "Overall, our board is in support of this position."
Matthews admits but explains
Matthews' July 6 guilty plea admits to the "technical facts" alleged in the indictment, and can be withdrawn if Matthews' wins the right to use a First Amendment defense, NPR says. Statham says two courts have allowed a First Amendment defense in similar cases.
Matthews did a three-part series on child pornography and the Internet for Washington, D.C. commercial news station WTOP, where he worked as a business reporter "in the 1990s", according to the station's news director, Michelle Komesdolge. "I can tell you Larry's a professional, and he's a wonderful journalist," she said.
The reporter found he had to work on the story in cognito, according to Statham. When he initially went into an online chat room and identified himself as a reporter, the chat room emptied. So he developed a screen persona, started to talk with people online, and, to get their confidence, traded images of children. At one point a mother offered to prostitute her two children, and Matthews reported it to the FBI. "They said, keep us updated," Statham recalls.
After the series aired, Matthews left WTOP, took freelance jobs with NPR and other organizations, but remained "intrigued by the child pornography story and its potential," Statham says. He also continued to talk with the FBI. One day, agents raided Matthews' home. "They found nothing as far as child pornography, not even a camera. No cache of magazines or any other publication," the lawyer says. But there were two images on Matthews' computer, and the FBI retrieved from Matthews' hard drive other images that had been deleted. He was ultimately charged with 15 counts of transmitting and receiving child pornography on the Net.
Prosecutors' spokesperson wouldn't comment on the case, but reports have said the government does not believe Matthews traded in the photos strictly for research purposes. They argue that Matthews could have gotten his information other ways. "The government has taken the position the reporter could as easily have gotten the information he needed from the FBI," says Susan Goerring, executive director of the ACLU, Maryland. "We maintain that is an alarming position . . ., because once our freedom of the press hinges on what the government tells us and not the reporter, then we're all in trouble."
Prosecutors have also argued that Matthews' can't simply take the law into his hands. "The defendant is seeking what amounts to absolute immunity to violate valid criminal statutes when he decides to do so in the name of gathering news," the prosecution said in its motion to block the First Amendment defense, according to the Post.
Web page created July 28, 1998
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