Studies suggest that US reporters, who enjoy the protection of the First Amendment, are strong supporters of freedom of the press. However, studies also suggest that the press rarely challenges the positions of government elites, unless those elites do not agree on a course of action. What happens when attitudes toward free press and government policy collide? This study relies on a survey of embedded journalists conducted soon after the conviction of Al-Jazeera's most prominent reporter, Taysir Alouni, on charges that he collaborated with terrorist organizations. The survey was designed to discover whether embeds believe the arrest sets a dangerous precedent. The study also examines the degree to which attitudes about whether the arrest sets a dangerous precedent are correlated with attitudes about press freedom and amount of censorship in Iraq. Respondents were more likely than not to believe that the arrest would set a dangerous precedent, but the plurality did not take a position on the issue. Those who believed reporters should have maximum access to the war and those who believed that the government engaged in censorship were more likely to argue that Alouni's arrest may have a chilling effect on journalism.
Andoni, L. (2005) `The Railroading of Taysir Alony: A Reporter Ensnared by Spain's Anti-terror Laws. URL (consulted 5 Oct. 2007): http://www.counterpunch.org.
2.
Ayish, M.I. (2004) `News Credibility during the 2003 Iraq War: A Survey of UAE Students', in R. D. Berenger (ed.) Global Media Go to War: The Role of News and Entertainment Media during the 2003 Iraq War, pp. 321-32. Spokane, WA: Marquette Books.
3.
Ayish, M.I. (2006) `Heroes and Villains in the Land of Two Rivers: How aljazeera.net Told the Story of the Anglo-American Invasion of Iraq', in R. D. Berenger (ed.) Cybermedia Go to War: Role of Converging Media during and after the 2003 Iraq War, pp. 126-48. Spokane, WA: Marquette Books.
4.
Bennett, W.L. (1990) `Toward a Theory of Press-State Relations', Journal of Communication40(2): 112-16.
5.
Bennett, W.L., R.G. Lawrence and S. Livingston (2006) `None Dare Call It Torture: Indexing and the Limits of Press Independence in the Abu Ghraib Scandal', Journal of Communication56: 467-85.
6.
Bibbo (2006) `Alouni Moved from Spanish Jail as Health Deteriorates, Says Wife', 10 October. URL (consulted 15 Oct. 2007): http://archive.gulfnews.com
7.
CNN.com (2003) `Live from the Headlines: Journalist or Terrorist? Teaching Radical Islam, 5 Sept. URL (consulted 15 Oct. 2007): http://transcripts.cnn.com
8.
Cooper, S. and J.A. Kuypers (2004) `Embedded versus Behind-the-Lines Reporting on the 2003 Iraq War', in R. Berenger (ed.) Global Media Goes to War, pp. 161-72. Spokane, WA: Marquette Books.
9.
De Beer, A.S. and J.C. Merrill (2004) Global Journalism: Topical Issues and Media Systems , 4th edn. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
10.
Dillman, D.A. (2000) Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method. New York: John Wiley.
11.
Dillman, D.A. (2005) Personal communication, 18 November, Chicago.
12.
Entman, R.M. (2004) Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
13.
Entman, R.M. (2006) `Punctuating the Homogeneity of Institutionalized News: Abuse in Prisoners at Abu Ghraib versus Killing Civilians at Fallujah' , Political Communication23: 215-24.
14.
Fahmy, S. (2005) `Photojournalists' and Photo-Editors' Attitudes and Perceptions: The Visual Coverage of 9/11 and the Afghan War', Visual Communication Quarterly12: 146-63.
15.
Fahmy, S. (2007a) Filling out the Frame: Transnational Reporting and News Practitioners' Attitudes toward the Visual Coverage of War and Terrorism . Saarbucken: Verlag Dr. Mueller e.K.
16.
Fahmy, S. (2007b) `"They Took It Down": Exploring Determinants of Visual Reporting in the Toppling of the Saddam Hussein Statue in National and International Newspapers', Mass Communication & Society10(2): 143-70.
17.
Fahmy, S. and T.J. Johnson (2005) `"How We Performed": Embedded Journalists' Attitudes and Perceptions towards Covering the Iraq War', Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly82: 301-17.
18.
Fahmy, S. and T.J. Johnson (2007a) `Embedded versus Unilateral Perspectives on the Iraq War', Newspaper Research Journal28(3): 98-114.
19.
Fahmy, S. and T.J. Johnson (2007b) `Show the Truth and Let the Audience Decide: A Web-Based Survey Showing Support for Use of Graphic Imagery among Viewers of Al-Jazeera', Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media51(2): 245-64.
20.
Figenschou, T.U. (2006) `Courting, Criticism, Censorship and Bombs: The Bush Administration's Troubled Relations with Al-Jazeera Channel from September 11 to the War in Iraq', Nordicom Review27: 81-96.
21.
Ganey, T. (2004) `Mixed Reviews on Embedded Reporters', St. Louis Journalism Review34: 25-30.
22.
Gaziano, C. (1987) `News People's Ideology and the Credibility Debate' , Newspaper Research Journal8: 1-18.
23.
Goddard, P., P. Robinson and K. Parry (2008) `Patriotism Meets Plurality: Reporting the 2003 Iraq War in theBritish Press', Media, War & Conflict1(1): 9-30.
24.
Haigh, M.M. et al. (2006) `A Comparison of Embedded and Non-embedded Print Coverage of the U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Iraq', Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics11(2): 139-53.
25.
Islamic Human Rights Commission (2005) `Alert: Free Aljazeera Reporter, Taysir Alouni'. URL (consulted 5 Oct. 2007): http://ihrc.org.uk
26.
Johnson, T.J. and S. Fahmy (in press) `See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Judge as Evil? Examining the Degree to which Users of Al-Jazeera English-Language Website Transfer Credibility Views to Its Satellite Network Counterpart', in Guy Golan et al. (eds) International Communication in a Global Age. Philadelphia, PA: Routledge /Erlbaum.
27.
Johnson, T.J. and S. Fahmy (2007) `When "Good" Conflicts Go Bad: Testing a Hierarchy-of-Influence Model on Embeds' Attitudes toward Censorship in the Iraq War', paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications annual convention, San Antonio, Texas, August.
28.
Johnson, T. and S. Fahmy (2009) `Embeds' Perceptions of Censorship: Can You Criticize a Soldier then Have Breakfast with Him in the Morning?', Mass Communication & Society12(1): 52-77.
29.
Lynch, M. (2006) Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera and Middle East Politics Today. New York: Columbia University Press.
30.
Marlow, L. (2003) `Post-war, Journalists Ask Themselves Hard Questions: The Vantage Points from which this War Was Witnessed Give Future Historians a Wealth of Material', writes Lara Marlow. The Irish Times , 8 Nov: 17.
31.
McQuail, D. (2005[1983]) Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction. London: Sage. New York Post (2005) `A Chill for Al-Jazeera, 27 Sept: 30.
32.
Miles, H. (2005) Al Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That Is Challenging the West. NewGrove: Grove Press.
33.
Pew Global Attitudes Project (2003) `Views of the Changing World: War with Iraq Further Divides Global Publics' . URL (consulted 25 Nov. 2008): http://pewglobal.org/reports
34.
Powers, S. and E. Gilboa (2007) `The Public Diplomacy of Al Jazeera', in P. Seib (ed.) New Media and the Middle East, pp. 53-80. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
35.
Rugh, W. (2004) The Arab Press: News Media and Political Process in the Arab World. Westport, CT: Praeger.
36.
Simper, E. (2005) `Dangers of Reporting from the Front Line', The Australian, 6 Oct: 20.
37.
Tremlett, G. (2005) `When a Reporter Got Too Close to the Story', The Guardian. URL (consulted 11 Oct. 2007): http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1583259,00.html
38.
Weaver, D. and G. Wilhoit (1986) The American Journalist: A Portrait of U.S. News People and Their Work. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
39.
Weaver, D. and G. Wilhoit (1996) The American Journalist in the 1990s: U.S. News People at the End of an Era. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
40.
Weaver, D. et al. (2006) The American Journalist in the 21st Century: U.S. New People at the Dawn of a New Millennium. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
41.
World Internet Project (2009) `Pioneering Report Finds Remarkable Similarities and Significant Differences Globally'. URL (consulted 25 Nov. 2008): http://www.digitalcenter.org/WIP2009/WorldInternetProject-FinalRelease.pdf
42.
Wyatt, R.O., J.L. Andsager and J.V. Bodle (1994) `Support for Media Rights: Cracks in the Media Monolith Myth', Mass Communication Review21: 156-72.
43.
Wyatt, R.O., S.S. Smith and J.L. Andsager (1996) `Spanning the Boundaries: Support for Media Rights among Public Relations Practitioners, Journalists, and the Public', Journal of Public Relations Research8: 123-35.
44.
Zayani, M. and Sahraoui, S. (2007) The Culture of Al Jazeera. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
