William R. Richardson: “on April 28 of this year the Tampa, FL, Tribune published an editorial entitled ``Don't Recruit Journalists As Spies.''…”

“on April 28 of this year the Tampa, FL, Tribune published an editorial entitled ``Don't Recruit Journalists As Spies.'' The editorial argued forcefully that only a blanket prohibition against their use as intelligence agents or assets was likely to minimize the risk to American journalists or representatives of American media organizations who are suspected of being spies by governments or individuals with whom they must deal in dangerous parts of the world. Describing the circumstances in which foreign correspondents must work the Tribune said, ``They die in combat. They are killed by governments intent on silencing them. And they are imprisoned and sometimes killed when they are suspected of being spies. That is what happened to our colleague, Tampa Tribune reporter Todd Smith, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1989 while on a working vacation in Peru. Shining Path guerrillas killed him because they didn't believe he was a journalist and thought he was a spy.''”