(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has denounced the 28 June 2005 US Court of Appeals decision at the District of Columbia (DC) Circuit to uphold civil contempt of court findings against four journalists who refused to reveal their sources for stories about former nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. “This is the second ruling of this kind in […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has denounced the 28 June 2005 US Court of Appeals decision at the District of Columbia (DC) Circuit to uphold civil contempt of court findings against four journalists who refused to reveal their sources for stories about former nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee.
“This is the second ruling of this kind in two days,” the organisation said. “Such a chilling trend seriously undermines the media’s role as a countervailing force in society. These rulings seriously erode the right of Americans to be informed. No one will dare reveal sensitive information to journalists anymore if confidentiality of sources is not guaranteed.”
RSF pointed out that they are media professionals, not federal investigators. “By protecting the identity of their sources, they are safeguarding society’s right to monitor public affairs.”
“Source confidentiality is an inviolable principle,” RSF continued. “It is astonishing to see that this principle is better recognised today in 31 States – and in Washington D.C., where it is protected by ‘shield laws’ – than at the federal level. We urge Congress to adopt, as soon as possible, the bills presented at the same time in the Senate and House of Representatives last February, which recognise journalists’ privilege to protect source confidentiality.”
In August 2004, US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson fined five journalists US$500 each for each day that they continued to conceal their sources for their stories about Wen, a former nuclear weapons scientist who was once suspected of spying. Jackson had found the journalists to be in contempt of court for refusing to obey his 14 October 2003 order to reveal their sources to the scientist’s lawyer. Application of the fine was suspended pending appeals. A hearing took place on 9 May 2005 before the DC Court of Appeals.
When questioned by the judge between 18 December 2003 and 8 January 2004, the journalists gave him all the information they could without revealing their sources, claiming protection under the first amendment to the national constitution.
The five journalists are: Jeff Gerth and James Risen, of the daily “New York Times”, Robert Drogin, of the daily “Los Angeles Times”, H. Josef Hebert, of the Associated Press news agency, and Pierre Thomas, who was working for the television network CNN at the time.
The appeals court reversed a contempt finding against Gerth, saying there was insufficient evidence against him to sustain such a conclusion. The four other reporters face fines of $US500 a day. Their lawyers have not yet disclosed whether or not they will file an appeal.
Wen has filed a lawsuit against the US Departments of Energy and Justice, which he accuses of handing over private information about him implying that he was a suspect in a nuclear secrets case. Jackson said in his 14 October 2003 decision that Lee had the right to know which government officials had leaked the information that had led to his being named as a suspect in the media.
