[Mb-civic] CBC News - N.Y. TIMES REPORTER JAILED FOR REFUSING TO DIVULGE SOURCE'S NAME

[CBC News Online]

This email has been sent to you by harry.sifton at sympatico.ca
The following is a news item posted on CBC NEWS ONLINE
at http://www.cbc.ca/news
____________________________________________________
N.Y. TIMES REPORTER JAILED FOR REFUSING TO DIVULGE SOURCE'S NAME
WebPosted Wed Jul  6 15:46:56 2005

---A U.S. judge has ordered a New York Times reporter to jail for as long
as four months because she refused to identify a confidential source in
the leak of an undercover CIA operative's name.

In a case seen as a test of freedom of the press, the judge had ordered
Judith Miller and a second reporter from Time magazine to tell a grand
jury who in the Bush administration had revealed the name of the
operative, Valerie Plame.

The reporters refused to divulge their sources, arguing that would deter
other people from talking confidentially to the media about issues of
public interest.

"There is still a realistic possibility that confinement might cause her
to testify," U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan said in a Washington
courtroom on Wednesday.



Unless she agrees to testify, Miller could remain in jail on contempt of
court charges until the end of October, when the federal prosecutor's
investigation is expected to wrap up.

"Judy Miller made a commitment to her source and she's standing by it,"
New York Times executive editor Bill Keller told reporters.

The other reporter, Matthew Cooper, did an about-face on Wednesday and
agreed to name his source to the grand jury.

Cooper said he had been prepared to go to jail, but was contacted that
morning by his source, who said he could divulge the identify.

"I am prepared to testify. I will comply," he told the court.

Media organizations and outlets across the United States had rallied
behind the two reporters. Some called for the creation of a federal law
that would let journalists refuse to name their confidential sources.

The federal investigation is trying to find out who leaked Plame's
identity, which was disclosed in a newspaper column in 2003 just a few
days after her husband criticized U.S. President George W. Bush's
justification for invading Iraq.

Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, had been sent to Africa
to investigate an intelligence claim that Saddam Hussein had been trying
to buy uranium to make nuclear weapons.

Wilson, who couldn't verify the claim, said Bush's administration skewed
intelligence reports to "exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

Cooper wrote an article for Time that named Plame, while Miller only
collected information without writing about it.

Plame returned to work in June, but reports say she will never work
undercover again.

Copyright (C) 2005 CBC. All rights reserved.