European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 30, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes Anthony Lewis saturday september 30, 1978 courts showing hostility toward the press a state legislature passes a Law say ing that priests do not have to provide Evi Dence against their penitents to any court or other official body. A year later the defendant in a fraud Case subpoenas Church records saying they will prove an other Man guilty. The priest relying on the new statute objects. The trial judge refuses to hear arguments about the new Law. He orders the re cords shown to him after that he says this court will give father. A full  the priest told by his lawyer that the statute Means what it says de dines to produce the records. The judge holds him in contempt and sentences him to six months in jail. On Appeal the state supreme court agrees that the statute on its face protects the priest but holds it unconstitutional. The court also agrees that there should have been a hearing first. But if there had been one it says the priest would have lost. It upholds the contempt conviction arts of our disintegration. Exaggerations of misinformation Ira Eaker world Bank aids Viet tyrants the world Bank and associated agencies have promised $90 million to Hanoi $60 million As a 50-year, no interest loan and $30 million As a 3 per cent inter est 25-year loan. Ostensibly this is provided to repair War damaged Rice production now 15 per cent Short of need. Red sympathizers in this country pointed out that the Marshall plan helped Ger Many and Japan to recover with Mutual benefits to their conquerors. There Are some obvious errors in this slanted sophistry. Hanoi did not lose the Vietnam War. We did due to their callous repudiation of the Paris peace treaty. The Marshall plan did not Aid Germany and Japan until each had installed demo cratic non tyrannical governments Allie with the free world. It was the vast forced urbanization pro Gram postwar which decreased Hanoi s Rice production. Millions of people were thrown out of the cities to starve. Other millions were thrown into concentration Camps for  it was this convulsion which drastically reduced the Foo Supply. The volume of human suffering and tragedy which has occurred in Southeast Asia As a result of the red tyranny exceeds that caused by either Hitler or Stalin As a percentage of population. Hitler s holocaust accounted for some 6 million dead out of a half billion conquered Peoples. Stalin killed 10 million Farmers who opposed his collectivization program out of 180 million people. The world Bank gets 98 per cent of its funds from free world nations. Why should communist dominated nations get most of its gifts or Loans Are there no needy worthy recipients in the free world what about the Brave boat people the columns comments 150,000 refugees who have fled from the hell of red controlled Vietnam Laos and Cambodia the $90 million could be of great help to the 150,000 escapees now Liv ing in poverty in refugee Camps in thai land and elsewhere. This unconscionable gift to Hanoi could not have come at a More inappropriate time. It makes a mockery of president Carter s Campaign for human rights when the most flagrant violators of human rights in this Century Are thus rewarded for their tyranny. There Are other astounding International implications. It rewards a soviet ally it helps Russia to achieve world domination. For example the vast naval base at Cam Ranh Bay which we built is now available to the russian Fleet greatly aiding its threat to free world Oil routes including those to the Philippines and Japan. It also Trumps our China  at the very time red China is withdrawing its support from the vietnamese tyrants the world Bank rushes in with Aid. The tragic consequences of this error Are redoubled since the world Bank head is an american. I can already hear the worldwide red propaganda machine grinding into gear for endless repetition of the condemnation the United states no admits its War crimes in  two excellent articles by eminent authorities on Southeast Asia which appeared in the prestigious strategic re View summer Issue 1978, completely confirm the fallacy of these world ban gifts and Loans. It is irrational to take Money earned from the free Enterprise system and use it to Aid the always faltering economies i communist countries. The Carter administration and u s con Gress must Stop this outrage. In los Angeles times and sends him off to jail. Unfair it sounds so. When a High court Long after the fact says that a witness could not rely on the Protection seemingly Given by a Law we would expect it to let him have a fresh Chance to decide what he will do. Indeed the hypothetical Case is so offensive to our sense of Justice that it sounds far fetched. But it is not. For exactly that has now happened to m. A. Farberow the new York times. Or. Farber relied on a new Jersey Law recently passed that says reporters May refuse to disclose information they have gathered to any  he refused to produce his notes when a defendant subpoenaed them. The judge would not hear argument on the new statute or other is sues until or. Farber showed him the notes. When or. Farber continued to say no he was sentenced six months in jail for criminal contempt. The supreme court of new Jersey agreed that the words of the new statute protected or. Farber but held the Law unconstitutional. It agreed that he should have had a hearing but speculated that he would have lost if he had had one. By a vote of 5 to 2, it affirmed his conviction. That Means that even if he now produces the notes he must still serve his sentence. That decision changes the nature of the Farber Case. It has been a significant test of the limits on Freedom of the press. Now it is a test of the right to due process of Law in the most elementary sense the right to notice of what your rights Are and a hear ing before you Are packed off to jail. I happen to believe that the press s need to protect its sources and editorial process has to be balanced against the Constitution al right to a fair trial. A defendant has an especially Strong claim to evidence from a reporter when As in this Case newspaper stories have led to his prosecution. But at a minimum a reporter or his notes should not be subpoenaed casually. Before evidence is compelled there should be a showing that it is Likely to be relevant necessary and unobtainable by other Means. That requirement is essential not for the personal interest of the press but for the Public interest served its Freedom to look deeply into Public affairs. The irony is that the new Jersey supreme court Laid Down exactly such a Rule in its Farber decision a showing of Neces sity before even a judge looks at press material in  it wanted to be sure the court said that there was no License for a fishing expedition in press files. But the court then said that the trial judge could have found the necessary showing in this Case if he had Ever faced the question and articulated a decision. If the Case had in fact involved a priest or for that matter a general motors official it is mostly unlikely that the new Jersey court would have upheld a contempt conviction on such an sex Post Facto judgment of the Law and the facts. Why then did the court do so in this Case the unhappy answer i think is that courts in general and this one specifically have developed an animus toward the press. The majority opinion and a concur rence have an air of hostility. The press ought to reflect on that and not Only in righteous resentment. For the truth is that we have sometimes sounded arrogant. We have seemed to say that the rights of the press come before All others. It happens in this Case no such absolute arguments were made. Lawyers for or. Farber and the times made Only the mod Erate claim that there should have been a showing of necessity before the notes were ordered produced and that they should have had a hearing. Only the supreme court of the United states can now restore some due process and common sense to the Farber Case. C new York times the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on in Spage represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government