Mr. Ben-Dat
Editor, CJN
Dear Mr. Ben-Dat:
Jonathan and I would like to reiterate the statement that Jonathan made in our original press release, and that is:
We are aware that prison officials, Mr. Joe Meko (Assistant Warden) and Mr. Frank Collinsworth (Unit Manager) were contacted by Ha'aretz and by the Toronto Star, and in both cases, they refused to be interviewed, and they did not breach public trust by disclosing information of a personal nature to any journalist.
A copy of the (U.S.) Bureau of Prisons "Inmate Public Information" list follows. The items listed are the only information that a prison official may disclose without being in violation of federal regulations and without violating an inmate's legal right to privacy.
Prison officials may not give interviews unless the inmate consents and signs a legal waiver. Jonathan did not sign any such waiver, and neither Mr. Meko nor Mr. Collinsworth were interviewed.
To imply that a prison official was interviewed and disclosed personal information (as the CJN did in the "Clarification" p15 Jan. 23/97) when no such interview took place is a serious breach of journalistic ethics.
It would have been more worthy of the CJN to make a simple phone call to prison officials to verify the facts in a responsible journalistic manner, rather than to take the word of the Toronto Star, where the false story originally appeared. In the interests of truth, a published correction, namely this letter, should be made available to your readers.
On behalf of Jonathan and myself,
Mrs. Esther Pollard
(Mrs. Jonathan Pollard )
cc Mr. F, Collinsworth
cc Mr. J. Meko
cc Mr. B. Rose