BROOKE GLADSTONE: We're back with On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was in Rome last week to meet with the Pope and Italian politicians. Aziz ended his visit at a Foreign Press Office news conference with reporters from around the world. But when an Israeli reporter asked a question, Aziz refused to answer. That prompted a dozen journalists to leave in protest, denouncing what they called "the shameful behavior" of their colleagues who stayed. The incident and its aftermath go to the heart of some conflicting journalistic values, as Megan Williams reports.
MENACHEM GANTZ: Mr. Aziz, my name is Menachem Gantz. I'm Israeli correspondent of Maariv.
MEGAN WILLIAMS: Israeli journalist Menachem Gantz asks Tariq Aziz if Iraq has the capacity to attack Israel.
MENACHEM GANTZ: Are you considering any kind of attack as a possibility against Israel in case of American attack?
MEGAN WILLIAMS: And this is what happens next.
TARIQ AZIZ: When I came to this press conference, it was not-- in my agenda to-- answer questions by the Israeli media. Sorry. [MANY WHISTLE AND EXCLAIM]
MENACHEM GANTZ: Sorry. I'm sorry -- is it possible for you to answer to our colleague? He is a journalist. He is member of the Foreign Press Office. Is it possible for you to answer [to him].
TARIQ AZIZ: No, I am not going to answer...
MEGAN WILLIAMS: The president of the Foreign Press Club looks distraught, but allows questions to continue. The vast majority of reporters remain. But about a dozen walk out in protest. Andreas Englisch was one of them. He says he left as a matter of principle.
ANDREAS ENGLISCH: There is no means to say I don't respond to you because you're Israeli! We can't accept this absolutely! I mean next time somebody will come here and say I will not answer you because you are black! I mean this was - this was a very bad sign, because if everybody kept in silence, nobody had the courage to - at least to say this is not possible!
MEGAN WILLIAMS: Englisch, who reports for Axel Springer Verlag, Germany's largest media company, is taking his protest a step further. He and four colleagues are resigning from the Rome Press Office after 20 years. Englisch says Aziz was a guest of the Press Office and should have been asked to leave.
ANDREAS ENGLISCH: And he was, he was-- invited to come here! If, if he doesn't want to-- to talk to some people, we will stop the conference! This should have been the logical consequence! They didn't, and I don't understand why!
MEGAN WILLIAMS: Frank Rocca is an American journalist who contributes to the Wall Street Journal. He also walked out, but he says he understands why others didn't.
FRANK ROCCA: Most people stayed. I think-- probably the instinct to get the story prevailed and people didn't really-- think it through. I, I hope it wasn't in support of-- that position. But I do fear that it was a propaganda coup for--for Az--Aziz because the message that he sent was: "Look. You see - no one stands by Israel."
MEGAN WILLIAMS: Several of the journalists who stayed said they weren't surprised that Aziz refused to answer the Israeli, given Iraq's hostility to the country, and that in the end, Aziz looked bad. The next day, Rome's mayor who was scheduled to meet with him canceled the encounter. He specifically cited Aziz's behavior at the press conference as the reason. The governing board of the Rome Press Office released a statement afterwards. They defended the fact that the press conference continued, but condemned Aziz for refusing to answer Menachem Gantz's question. Gantz himself walked out of the news conference, but he won't be resigning from the Press Office and says he doesn't feel let down by his colleagues. He says he does hope, however, that the incident will launch a discussion about journalistic ethics and behavior.
MENACHEM GANTZ: I guess that this incident will definitely bring a large debate inside the association, and that's - that's positive; it should be done this way.
MEGAN WILLIAMS: That debate has just begun. The Rome Press Office will take up the issue in its next committee meeting. They'll try to come up with some ethical guidelines for what to do when a newsmaker singles out journalists --not because of what they've reported but because of who they are. For On the Media, I'm Megan Williams in Rome. [MUSIC TAG]