(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 3 October 2001 IAPA press release: IAPA offers support in Leggett case HOUSTON, Texas (October 3, 2001) – Today, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) offered its support to freelance reporter Vanessa Leggett during a visit to the Federal penitentiary. She has been held at the penitentiary in Houston, […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 3 October 2001 IAPA press release:
IAPA offers support in Leggett case
HOUSTON, Texas (October 3, 2001) – Today, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) offered its support to freelance reporter Vanessa Leggett during a visit to the Federal penitentiary. She has been held at the penitentiary in Houston, Texas for the past 75 days for contempt of court for refusing to reveal her news sources concerning a murder about which she plans to write a book.
Following the visit, IAPA President Danilo Arbilla, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, news weekly Búsqueda, expressed the hemispheric free-press organization’s concern and alarm at her imprisonment, which he called a violation of freedom of expression and contrary to the recognized rights granted Americans under the First Amendment.
Arbilla, who has already written twice to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in the name of the IAPA protesting the custody order, said it puts in doubt constitutional guarantees for the free flow of information, free speech and press freedom.
“As a result of this court order issued against the freelance writer, people will feel they lack any protection when they give information to a journalist under the condition of confidentiality. This will infringe on the right of the public to be informed and amounts to a threat to the very practice of journalism,” Arbilla said. “It also affects the state of law itself, in that a demand is being made that statements be divulged to the courts that were obtained with other objectives and for reasons protected under the First Amendment.”
Leggett, who is determined to continue refusing to reveal her sources, told the IAPA delegation that her decision was based on her conviction that she is acting within her right to free speech and the ability to criticize public officials and the government.
In addition to Arbilla, the IAPA delegation that met with Leggett was made up of former IAPA President Tony Pederson, of the Houston Chronicle, Houston, Texas, and IAPA Press Freedom Coordinator Ricardo Trotti.
Accompanied by her attorney, Jennifer Ahlen, during the 35-minute interview, Leggett reaffirmed her decision to not back down and thanked the IAPA for intervening with the United States government and raising the case with the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations at its meeting in Paris, France, late last month. The committee adopted a declaration protesting the jailing with the support of the World Association of Newspapers, International Press Institute, International Broadcasting Association, International Federation of the Periodical Press, World Press Freedom Committee and the IAPA.
During the meeting with Leggett, the IAPA officers announced that her case would also be taken up at the Association’s General Assembly in Washington, D.C. beginning next week, because of the case’s importance and because of new information that has been revealed, such as the journalist’s treatment in jail, in her own words, as if she were a common criminal or murderer, while her only crime has been to defend the basic principles of journalism and a free press.
Leggett’s attorney said there was no decision yet on a second appeal that she has filed against the court order and added that if this is turned down Leggett could remain in jail for a further four months.
