Replaying Tuesday, December 14, 1982

BRIEFING

Date: 15 December 1982

By Phil Gailey and Warren Weaver Jr

Phil Gailey

A Scene for Good News T he White House press office effectively confirmed yesterday an operating principle of which reporters had long been unofficially aware: Good news is made more readily available than is bad news in the President's home and office. While President Reagan was conferring privately with Congressional leaders on a possible MX compromise, reporters were told that if an agreement was reached, Senator Howard H. Baker Jr. and Representative Robert H. Michel would meet with them in the White House briefing room; otherwise, the announcement went, they would have to intercept the Republican leaders as best they could, out on the snow-covered front lawn. Forced to assume the worst, reporters gathered outside in the cold, where Secret Service agents then tried to dislodge them from the driveway. But word came from within that an agreement had been hammered out, and the reporters scuttled back to the warm and cosy briefing room where they found not only the Republican lawmakers but the President as well.

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10 FILIPINO JOURNALISTS ARRAIGNED

Date: 14 December 1982

Special to the New York Times

Ten Filipino journalists pleaded not guilty today to charges of subversion and conspiracy to overthrow the Government. The defendants were brought from isolation cells at Fort Boniface outside Manila for their arraignment before a civilian judge. The hearing before Judge Jose Castro was delayed for two hours because the courtroom could not accommodate the 30 defense lawyers, the large press contingent and the crowd of sympathizers.

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SOUTH AFRICA RAID DEPLORED BY PRESS

Date: 15 December 1982

Special to the New York Times

Although South African newspapers are usually hesitant to find fault with army operations, the raid into the capital of Lesotho last week has been criticized by both pro-Government and opposition publications. In addition, the official opposition, the Progressive Federal Party, has followed up its initial endorsement of the operation with a statement deploring what its leader described as the loss of innocent lives. Forty-two people died in Maseru, Lesotho, during the raid, which the South African armed forces said had been intended to head off guerrilla assaults reportedly planned by the outlawed African National Congress.

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REPORTERS BALK AT SECRECY PLEDGE

Date: 15 December 1982

By Philip Taubman, Special To the New York Times

Philip Taubman

The Defense Department today took the unusual step of asking reporters to sign a secrecy agreement before attending a briefing about Soviet military capabilities. The secrecy agreement stipulated that the reporters never disclose ''in writing, broadcast or any verbal discourse'' the information they would hear. It also required the journalists to report to the Pentagon any effort made by others to obtain the sensitive information. When the reporters balked at signing the agreement, senior officials in the department settled for their spoken word of honor. The New York Times declined to send a correspondent to the briefing because of the restrictive conditions. Richard Gross, a correspondent for United Press International, left the session after the discussion about the secrecy agreement.

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News Summary; TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1982

Date: 14 December 1982

International Poland's leaders announced actions that they said would ''suspend'' martial law. But the legislation submitted to Parliament would leave the military regime with sweeping powers, shift key regulations to the regular penal code and underscore the Government's power to put other martial law restrictions back into force at any time. (Page A1, Column 2.) Criticism of Poland's moves to ease martial law was expressed by Secretary of State George P. Shultz after he met in Rome with Pope John Paul II. Mr. Shultz said the steps did not seem to meet the Western allies' criteria for lifting economic and political sanctions against Warsaw. (A11:1.)

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News Summary; WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1982

Date: 15 December 1982

International New concessions on the MX missile were made by President Reagan. He agreed to allow Congress to freeze spending for development until it approved a system for basing the intercontinental weapon. Officials said Mr. Reagan had made the major concession after being told that approval of the missile was in jeopardy in the Senate. (Page A1, Column 6.) More than 1,000 people were killed in the earthquake that devastated areas of Yemen Monday. The Government said that more than 1,100 people had been hospitalized. The temblor leveled at least 11 villages and badly damaged 142 in the rugged, mountainous country. (A1:1.)

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TRANSCRIPT OF PRESIDENT'S NEWS CONFERENCE ON FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC MATTERS

Date: 15 December 1982

Following is a transcript of President Reagan's news conference in Washington yesterday, together with some of the questions to and answers by Senators John Tower and Howard H. Baker Jr., as recorded by The New York Times through the facilities of ABC News: OPENING STATEMENT Well, this morning I met with a group of leading Republican and Democratic Senators to discuss the future of the MX Peacekeeper missile. And I'm pleased to report that we've reached a bipartisan agreement that we hope will preserve funding for the missile and enable us to continue the restoration of America's defense capabilities. In recent days it's become apparent that many members of Congress agree with my assessment that production of the Peacekeeper is in the national security interest of the United States. At the same time, however, they want to take a closer look at the question of how to base the missile. The agreement we've reached today is a reasonable balancing of those interests. All of us who met today pledged that in the next few days we'll work with others in the Senate and with members of the House to secure full Congressional assent to this plan.

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NETWORKS EXPLAIN SHIFT IN COVERAGE OF PRESIDENT

Date: 15 December 1982

By Sally Bedell

Sally Bedell

When President Reagan made an unscheduled appearance at the White House yesterday morning to announce his compromise with Congressional leaders on the MX missile system, it was not without precedent. In the last few years Mr. Reagan has on at least a half-dozen occasions wrapped up crucial discussions with such appearances in the press briefing room. His announcement, while significant, had been widely anticipated, and it confronted the three commercial television networks for the second time in less than a week with the question of whether to interrupt their daytime schedules of soap operas, game shows and reruns of hit shows for the President's views on the missile system. Yesterday only ABC-TV elected to carry Mr. Reagan live while NBC-TV and CBS-TV stayed with their regularly scheduled programs. Last Friday, however, when Mr. Reagan invited reporters into the Oval Office, the pattern of coverage was reversed: NBC-TV and CBS-TV showed their viewers the President and ABC-TV declined to carry the session. On both occasions Cable News Network and Satellite News Channel, the two 24-hour news services on cable television, covered the events as a matter of course.

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W. COLFAX SMALL

Date: 15 December 1982

W. Colfax Small, a war correspondent for United Press and a freelance contributor to national magazines and news syndicates, died of a heart attack on Dec. 1 on a Manhattan Street.

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Presley Autopsy to Be Sealed

Date: 14 December 1982

UPI

Upi

A document which might indicate whether Elvis Presley died of a drug overdose must remained sealed because no official autopsy was performed on the singer, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled today. The court dismissed a petition by the ABC News program ''20-20'' to force the medical examiner in Shelby County, Tennessee, to make public the the report of an autopsy authorized by the singer's father, because ''the District Attorney General did not order'' an official autopsy.

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