Dear Ms. Quijano,

The Militant newspaper joins Mundo Hispano in protesting the unfounded attack on your paper by the Salt Lake Tribune in its March 17 article, “Spanish-language journal uses fake bylines.” We defend your “editorial decision of using a pen name in a byline to protect the reporter,” as you put it in your March 17 letter (as yet unpublished) to the editors of the Tribune.

The Tribune article disregards reality in claiming that it is unjustified and “unethical” for authors of newspaper articles to use pen names in the United States, because the U.S. is “a democratic society, with guaranteed freedom of the press.”

The use of pen names is not uncommon in the U.S. media. For a variety of legitimate reasons, those interviewed by newspapers sometimes ask that their names not be used, and for similar reasons the authors of articles may choose to use pen names. For example, workers exposing the truth about brutal job conditions, whether quoted by a newspaper or writing articles themselves, can and do face victimization by their bosses.

In the midst of the spate of deaths in U.S. coal mines the first two months of this year, an Alabama daily, the Tuscaloosa News, published an article in its February 12 issue, headlined, “Miners say they fear reporting safety problems.” The News reported that coal miners quoted in that article “agreed to be interviewed only if their names were not published. All said they would face certain punishment or possible termination if they spoke out publicly against their employers.”

Is freedom of the press under assault only in countries like Colombia, as the Tribune claims? No, there are attacks on freedom of the press right here in the United States of America. Our newspaper, the Militant—together with the United Mine Workers of America and 16 individual coal miners—is itself the target of a harassment lawsuit by the C.W. Mining Co. The suit is part of an attempt by this Utah coal boss to defeat a two-year-long fight by coal miners to win representation by the UMWA at the company’s Co-Op mine near Huntington, Utah, and to intimidate others seeking unionization or those reporting the truth about such efforts and editorially supporting them. To accomplish this goal, C.W. Mining has falsely accused the Militant of “defamation” for quoting miners and describing their side of the story in their fight for safe conditions, livable wages, dignity, and representation by the UMWA. The Salt Lake Tribune itself was a target of this same lawsuit.

Another coal company, Massey Energy, has filed, and re-filed, a similar defamation lawsuit against the West Virginia daily Charleston Gazette and the UMWA.

Such attacks, in fact, have a long history in the United States. During World War II, for example, the U.S. government sought to suppress newspapers based in the Black community, such as the Pittsburgh Courier, and the Militant for publishing articles on the fight against racist segregation, charging that such coverage provoked “discontent” in wartime. The U.S. Postmaster even suspended the Militant’s second-class mailing rights on that basis, until our paper—a socialist newsweekly published in the interests of working people—won a yearlong public campaign to restore its rights.

The Tribune’s attack on Mundo Hispano should be rejected. It can and will be used by those seeking to chill freedom of the press and other First Amendment rights.

We join you in defending your right to make editorial decisions to use pen names and we pledge our support in standing up to this attack on your publication.

Sincerely,
Argiris Malapanis, Editor, The Militant
 
 
Related articles:
Utah daily attacks Spanish weekly for use of pen names  
 
 
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