Q687 Transcript

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Jones: – gave two thousand dollars to the [William] Farr case, and uh, we feel that this issue is becoming more and more of a concern. Uh, we feel that uh, pra– uh, press freedom basically depends upon the reporter’s right to maintain their sources.

Newscaster: But Jones says the group will demonstrate around the clock until Saturday.

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Newscaster: – of a San Francisco church group demonstrated today outside the Fresno County Courthouse in support of the four Fresno Bee newsmen. The reporters were jailed for refusing to reveal a news source, and the group is headed by the Reverend Jim Jones.

Jones: We feel this is a very grave issue, and we had a pang of guilt, members of our congregation, as we witnessed uh, I think, through your station and others last weekend that there were only 70 gathered here (unintelligible word) and all of them were news people. After all, the news is just the arm of the people, and people should cherish that right to know, and that’s what this is all about.

Newscaster: The demonstrators are members of Jones’ Peoples Temple Christian Church in San Francisco.

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Newscaster: –grave concern about the unprecedented assault by the courts of California right of the public to be kept informed about its own affairs. The one-page statement said the courts, specifically the Superior Court in Fresno County, have earned the dubious distinction of having committed the first multiple jailing of journalists in this country.

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Woman: Thursday, September 9, 1976. The next recordings are from (Pause) Channel 5 News, (Pause) September 9, 1976.

Newscaster: –Francisco church group is saying today that four reporters for the Fresno Bee got a raw deal. Those four reporters were jailed last Friday for refusing to reveal how they obtained information contained in a sealed grand jury report. Today, 600 people from the Peoples Temple Christian Church picketed outside the Fresno County Courthouse. They ranged in age from five years old to the 91-year-old man you see there on your screen. The group expects their number to grow to one thousand before they end their protest on Saturday. The Peoples Temple leader, the Reverend Jim Jones, says that his group is in Fresno to show that the jailing of those four reporters is, in his words, crippling the people of America.

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Woman: Testing, one, two, three–

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Side 2:

Tape begins with radio announcement unrelated to Peoples Temple, and near the end has almost inaudible conversation running backwards

Tape originally posted March 2017