Democracy on Deadline

Originally shown on PBS, Calvin Skaggs' inspiring documentary Democracy on Deadline examines the efforts of the press to cover war-related news—in which they are often thwarted by constraints of military censorship or government propaganda—focusing on the experiences of a handful of international journalists. Gideon Levy of the Israeli daily Haaretz, for instance, was forcibly delayed at a West Bank checkpoint after reporting on his country's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who reported on war in Chechnya from the Chechen side, was less fortunate: she was killed in her Moscow apartment building, which led to allegations of an execution order issued from the higher echelons of Russia's government. Even in Washington D.C., breaking through barriers of evasion and obfuscation requires extraordinary determination, as evidenced by the experiences of The Washington Post's Dana Priest, who launched an investigation into the government's maintenance of secret CIA-operated prisons across Europe, resulting in a story that not only exposed how the Bush administration circumvented American and international law, but also changed the timbre of the national mood regarding the war on terror (and earned Priest the Pulitzer Prize). No matter the location, the journalists profiled here share an uncommon determination to bring unfiltered information to the general public and to uphold the basic tenets of a free press. And as this film rightfully acknowledges, their work is invaluable in today's world. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)