Jack Landau founded group focused on freedom of the press
By Joe Holley
/ The Washington Post
Published: August 18. 2008 4:00AM PST
Jack Landau, 74, a founder of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, died Aug. 9 of complications from emphysema at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington County. He was a longtime Falls Church, Va., resident.
The committee, a Washington-based legal defense and research center for reporters, was created in 1970, when the nation’s news media were facing an increasing number of government subpoenas demanding that reporters name confidential sources.
A group of journalists, including Benjamin Bradlee of The Washington Post, Mike Wallace of CBS and Tom Wicker of The New York Times, gathered at Georgetown University to discuss the need to provide legal assistance. They formed a committee that initially operated part time.
Landau, a reporter-lawyer covering the U.S. Supreme Court for Newhouse News Service, was an early member of the steering committee. In his spare time, he also started the First Amendment Hotline, the first free legal guidance service for journalists involved in First Amendment and freedom of information issues.
During his tenure as executive director of the Reporters Committee from 1970 to 1985, the organization filed suit for access to more than 40 million White House documents and tapes held by former President Nixon, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s official telephone transcripts and FBI arrest records.
ARTICLE ACCESS: This article is among those available to all readers. Many more articles are available only to E-Edition members.
Sign up today!
