Oct. 18, 2003 - - When you head out on a story, do you feel safe? And if you don't, how does it affect your actions as a journalist? As a New Yorker? As an American?

Threats from within journalism and from without - including attacks on our constitutional rights, sometimes argued as necessary to fight terrorism, and threats directly from terrorists intent on attacking America and Americans - were among the topics discussed at the 2003 New York Press Club Journalism Conference at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

NBC Correspondent Ashleigh Banfield, who rose to international prominence as a reporter and anchor for MSNBC, tackled the subject in her keynote speech about the First Amendment and the life-threatening risks that journalists may face.

"I don't want to die," says Banfield, who is among the survivors of the World Trade Center collapse and has reported in numerous war zones including Iraq, Afghanistan and the Mideast. "It's all about calculated risk."

Banfield says following the Sept. 11 attack, she was powerfully motivated by an awareness that terrorists "were coming to kill us" and by the desire to know "why these people killed my friends" - individuals who did not
survive the attack.

Within days of Sept. 11, Banfield was on her way to Pakistan, a hotbed of anti-American sentiment and a stronghold of supporters of Osama bin Laden, despite the fact that its government later lined up with the U.S. in support of the war on the Taliban.

Banfield rejects the praise of those who call her brave and says she gets scared like anyone else - when the World Trade Center collapsed - and when journalists targeted by the Taliban were killed in Pakistan and Afghanistan - but she nonetheless chooses to take some of the risks in exchange for pursuing the story.

As a Canadian, Banfield did not grow up with the First Amendment. But as a journalist, she says the freedoms it claims for the media are rights which resonate around the world, especially in contrast to "the palpable fears" foreign journalists have towards freedom of speech and even freedom of thought.

She recalls being driven by one of Saddam Hussein's opulent palaces, complete with a private lake, at a time when the temperature was well over 100 degrees and water was scarce.

The driver, with whom she had a friendly relationship, warned her that people in passing cars were under surveillance and it was not smart to stare or look too long at the palace.

Asked his own opinion of the luxury that was spread out before them, the driver told Banfield: "Please don't ask me such questions - it's dangerous to talk."

Such dangers are as real as they are routine while reporting in hot spots and nations where freedom is not even promised.

"For those considering the career and lifestyle of a foreign journalist," said Banfield, addressing herself to the students present at the Journalism Conference, "there is much to consider. It can carry with it a price - and it can be the ultimate price."

As a vocation, the life of a journalist can also be very satisfying.

Banfield was introduced by MSNBC-TV editor-in-chief Jerry Nachman, who is legendary for a career that has included newspapers, radio, service as a Pulitzer Prize juror, and work as a writer on "Politically Incorrect," on a TV drama, and a film that won an Academy Award.

He's won numerous other accolades but listening to his remarks, it was clear than none mean quite so much as the camaraderie of "the gang" - the reporters who competed and hung around together in the 1970s. Giving Banfield - who didn't begin her career until 1988 - his stamp of approval, Nachman said he has no doubt that if she were around back then, she would have fit right in.

Earlier in the day, Nachman led the questioning for one of the conference's four panel discussions, "Is New York Prepared For Another Incident, Be It Terror Or Blackout?"

In addition to Nachman, the panelists for this topic were: Rich Lamb, NYPC president and reporter for Newsradio 880; anti-terrorism expert Steve Emerson; Mike Sheehan, the NYPD's Deputy Commisioner for Counterterrorism; Pasquale D'Amuro, Assistant Director of the FBI; and Mike Clendenin, of Con Edison.

"What happened last summer?" said Nachman, asking Clendenin about New York's most recent emergency: the August blackout. "If we don't know yet what happened, how can we know that it won't happen again?"

Clendenin agreed that the speed of the probe into the cause of the massive outage is frustrating, as engineers scrutinize 120,000 miles of cable. He says the international panel in charge of the investigation is likely to need several more months before being ready with any conclusions.

He added that terrorism has changed the climate and approach at Con Ed. And he notes that the giant utility, instead of operating under the assumption of "What if?" something happens, holds daily drills of emergency plans to make sure that the utility giant will be as prepared as possible for the various kinds of problems that could occur.

For law enforcement, the challenge is prevention, as well as apprehension of individuals who have already set terrorist plans into motion.

Sheehan notes that arrests of al Qaeda leaders overseas have been "helpful" in providing information to disrupt possible terrorist plots and apprehend individuals here who may be involved in such activities.

Many of the suspects arrested as a result, said Sheehan, "were small fish. But they could have been part of something big" - a plan disrupted by their arrest.

Speaking for the FBI, D'Amuro said it is important to remember that many "significant" plots have also been stopped in their tracks, including schemes to bomb the Empire State building, airplanes, bridges and tunnels.

D'Amuro said a lot of the intelligence coming from Iraq and the CIA is on paper - documentary evidence, most of which should not be made public, to avoid disrupting ongoing investigations.

"Al Qaeda is trying to put a chemical, biological, or radiological twist" into its terror plots, said D'Amuro, "and it could have multiple targets. We have to remain very focused - the consequences could be tremendous."

Shifting focus in the media and the public is a point of frustration for Sheehan. He recalls that just five weeks after the Oct. 12, 2000, suicide bomb attack on the U.S.S. Cole, it was already a non-issue: getting very little news coverage and not mentioned at all by either party in the presidential candidate debates.

Focus is indeed an issue. Anti-terror consultant Steve Emerson says what law enforcement must do, and the question of what must be done in the war on terror, are related but separate missions.

It's the difference, said Emerson, "between keeping a bomb from coming down today" - a classic law enforcement function - and "looking six months ahead" at crimes which may now be only in the planning stages - which is a matter of intelligence gathering and analysis.

"We're very bad at penetrating these types of organizations," said Sheehan of efforts to get inside knowledge o terror plots - pointing out at the same time that this is primarily the responsibility of the CIA.

Accountability, suggested Nachman, is another thing federal agencies - which missed a number of signals prior to Sept. 11 - need to improve.

"No one's been docked a day's pay," said Nachman - questioning why FBI and CIA slipups did not lead to the dismissal of individuals who were responsible - unimpressed by assurances that some people were quietly demoted or otherwise reassigned.

The benefit of public firings was discussed at another Journalism Conference panel, "Examining The New York Times," with Bruce Lambert of The New York Times, James Madore of Newsday, media critic Seth Mnookin, who is writing a book about the Times, and Bob Kohn, author of "Journalistic Fraud: How The New York Times Distorts the News and Why It Can No Longer Be Trusted."

All of the panelists felt that the scandals at the New York Times -

the story fabrications by Jayson Blair and the omission of freelancer bylines on stories attributed to Pulitzer Prize-winner Rick Bragg - have had a healthy effect that is still rippling throughout the news business.

As the Times fired executives and wrote apologies to its readers, newspapers all over the country set up task forces to ask themselves: could it happen here?

"If it could happen at The New York Times, it could happen anywhere," said Madore, observing that the task forces on fact-checking, corrections, and bylines have been mainly found at newspapers, instead of electronic media.

The problem, said Madore, has had a chilling effect on minority - Jayson Blair is black, and so is one of the New York Times editors who lost his job in the scandal - and young journalists, who "feel as if they have a target on their back - that they are being watched."

That, panelists agreed, is in itself a threat to journalism, which needs the point of view of a diverse group of reporters.

Also at the Journalism Conference this year - panel discussions on "What Happened to the First Amendment?" and "Going to War with the News: A Look at Iraq War Coverage," plus our always popular Demo Tape Screening and Resume Review, for television journalists in the early stages of their careers, with critiques by Phil O'Brien of WCBS-TV and Joanne Stevens of Stevens Media Consulting.

First Amendment challenges, especially in the current battle against terrorism, were discussed by Gabe Pressman, NYPC Foundation president and reporter for WNBC-TV; Robert George, of the New York Post; Adam Liptak, of The New York Times; and civil rights attorney Norman Siegel.

War coverage issues - including technology, bias and the practice of "embedding" journalists - were discussed by Gary Anthony Ramsay, of New York 1 News; Lou Young, of WCBS-TV; Tim Scheld, news director of WCBS 880; and Richard Hottelet, who covered World War II for CBS Radio News.

Our thanks go to the members of the Journalism Conference committee: Debra Caruso, chair, and Nick Abadjian, Rich Lamb, Annie Marinho, Phil O'Brien, Gabe Pressman and Jeff Simmons.

The board of the New York Press Club is also appreciative of the support of New York Life, the event's primary sponsor, as well as contributions from WCBS Newsradio 880, 1010 WINS Radio, WNBC-TV, WCBS-TV, WB11 News at 10, The Staten Island Advance and The Daily News.

For more on the 2003 New York Press Club Journalism Conference, check out the latest edition of "Legally Speaking," by NYPC member, attorney and journalist Beverly Poppell.

Photos by Nikki Endo