Article on Footage of Shooting in Zambia Raises Questions for Media

Does a journalist’s confidentiality agreement with sources cover footage of an apparent killing?That is one question raised in an article in the April 5 edition of The New Yorker, where the writer Jeffrey Goldberg reports that ABC showed footage of an alleged killing in Zambia in the 1990s — and did not inform Zambian authorities about the shooting.

 

An ABC documentary crew was in the Northern Province of Zambia filming Delia and Mark Owens, American conservationists who moved to Africa in the 1970s. While there, the crew filmed the apparent shooting death of a man who was possibly a big-game poacher, a piece of startling footage that was broadcast in 1996 on the news show “Turning Point” under the title “Deadly Game: The Mark and Delia Owens story.” While the footage was shown in the documentary, no shooter was identified.

 

In his article, which runs more than 17,000 words, Mr. Goldberg identifies a suspect in the killing, based on interviews with the ABC crew and with Zambian authorities. His article also describes a documentary hamstrung by some questionable practices of television news, including a correspondent who flew in for only a portion of the production and network executives who promised confidentiality in exchange for access.

 

“We were allowed to accompany patrols in Zambia after we agreed not to identify those involved, should a shooting occur,” Meredith Vieira, who replaced Deborah Amos as the reporter on the project, said in the documentary.

 

That confidentiality, Mr. Goldberg writes, prevented some crew members from speaking openly about the shooting. “What kind of confidentiality agreement could you possibly have that prohibits you from identifying a perpetrator of a homicide?” said Mr. Goldberg, now a national correspondent at The Atlantic, who began reporting the story in 2001. “There are still mysteries here.”

 

It was only once the footage was shown in 1996 that the Zambian government began an investigation into the shooting. Biemba Musole, a Zambian deputy commissioner in charge of criminal investigations, was blunt in an interview with Mr. Goldberg. “The ABC News show is an accessory to murder,” he said, according to the article.

 

An ABC spokesman, Jeffrey Schneider, said the network had not heard from the Zambian government about an investigation.

 

Lawyers for the Owenses say there was no evidence that a killing even took place. “No evidence at all was found that anybody had been killed — no missing persons report, no nothing,” said Donald Zachary, a lawyer for the couple. “The whole premise that there was a killing seems to be unsubstantiated.”

 

Their lawyers also said it was unclear that the ABC footage was filmed in the same location as the couple’s work. In a letter to donors after the documentary was shown, the Owenses said they were not involved in the events.

 

Mr. Schneider of ABC emphasized that the executives and producers involved in the 1996 report no longer worked for the news division.

 

“Today, when we enter into any kind of agreement involving confidentiality, we try very hard to walk all the way around it, to ferret out every potential legal and ethical question that could arise, and then make a decision about how to handle confidentiality,” Mr. Schneider said in an interview.

 

Ms. Vieira, now a host of “Today” on NBC, said in a voice mail message on Sunday that the shooting took place before she arrived in Zambia. “I thought it was never clear who had fired the gun,” she said.

 

Ms. Vieira also said she had no “real recollection” of an agreement not to identify the people on the patrols.

 

“I don’t believe that ABC would — if they knew that somebody had killed someone, I don’t think they would be complicit,” she said. “I would find that hard to believe.”

 

Kelly McBride, the ethics group leader for the Poynter Institute, said that journalists should not use promises of anonymity “to allow your audience to be deceived.” She said journalists could limit their commitments to sources.

 

“If you witness a crime, do you have any sort of obligation that transcends your promise of anonymity?” Ms. McBride said. “That’s a really difficult question. I don’t think you can answer it ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ If you are the only witness to a crime, that certainly tilts it toward ‘yes.’ ”

 

- March 28, 2010 by STEPHANIE CLIFFORD and BRIAN STELTER

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Source: www.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/business/media/29newyorker.html (accessed on 29.03.10)