Support for Liu's Nieman Fellowship Not Political

To the editors:

In your recent article (News, May 17) on the decision by the Nieman Foundation to withdraw a fellowship from Liu Kinming, Bill Kovach, the Curator, noted that the letters he'd received from supporters of Liu struck him as "political."

I wrote one of Liu's references for the Nieman and I also wrote to Kovach about his withdrawal. Political considerations were not in my mind. I told Kovach that Liu had suddenly changed jobs from op-ed editor of one paper to a much better one. I noted that while he was waiting to hear from Harvard, he could hardly turn down such an offer on the chance that he would receive a Nieman--and in any event the job would have gone to someone else. I pointed out that Liu's new paper was the only one in Hong Kong, although it has mass appeal, free of political censorship or pressure. I said to Kovach that the decision to withdraw the fellowship seemed unjust.

If it is the case that Liu infringed a Nieman rule by changing jobs, Kovach could have considered--as a journalist--what this mean to Liu and how little it changed his qualification as a Nieman Fellow. All that was required was for Liu's new publisher to release him to go to Cambridge. Liu's many friends feel that both he and Harvard have lost a splendid opportunity.

Jonathan Mirsky

May 20, 1999

The writer is the former East Asia editor for the Times of London.