Promoting the need for truthful information to foster a democracy built on trust.
The "crisis of conscience" of the American press was accentuated in 2005 with the "Judith Miller" affair, named after the New York Times journalist who was imprisoned for several months following her refusal to reveal her sources in the "Plame" affair (Valérie Plame, a CIA agent, wife of an ambassador hostile to the Bush Administration). Already criticised for its official following during the war in Iraq, the American press took a long time to investigate accusations of torture in American prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan. In recent years, in the face of these shortcomings, journalists have been organizing against the tide of infotainment and conformism to defend excellence and the public interest; hitherto confined to "radical" circles, the media reform movement is moving out of its marginality and joining those within the profession who are concerned about media developments and the impact on democratic life.
