http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=5ZQSOFSZRUTYWCRBAEZSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=4087871
U.S. Reporters to Defy Order to Disclose Sources
Wed January 7, 2004 11:31 AM ET
By Caroline Drees, Security Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amid concerns that journalists' rights may be under
attack, the first of three reporters from major U.S. media outlets will defy
on Wednesday an order by a federal judge to disclose their sources in an
unfounded espionage case, their lawyers said.
Journalists from The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and a former
CNN reporter have been subpoenaed by Wen Ho Lee, a scientist once suspected
of spying.
Lee, who was never charged with espionage, has filed a lawsuit against the
government, accusing officials of violating his privacy by leaking personal
employment records to reporters.
Lawyers for the AP's Josef Hebert, the LA Times' Robert Drogin and former
CNN reporter Pierre Thomas told Reuters their clients would "honor their
commitments to their sources" in their depositions, which come less than a
month after two New York Times reporters defied an order in the same case by
U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to disclose the sources.
The first deposition was scheduled for later on Wednesday, with two more the
next day, the lawyers said.
By refusing to heed Jackson's order, the reporters could be found in
contempt of court and punished with jail terms or "indefinite fines" until
they comply.
Jackson earlier denied the journalists' motions to quash the subpoenas,
ordering them to give depositions disclosing the identity of their sources.
Lawyers and media advocacy groups say the reporters' refusal to obey the
judge could set an important precedent for journalistic privilege, which
they say is guaranteed by First Amendment right of freedom of the press.
Some fear the privilege is at risk, pointing to several cases in recent
months in which judges have denied reporters the right to keep sources
secret.
"I do think that the Wen Ho Lee case is one part of what appears to be a
pattern of recent judicial resistance to recognizing and enforcing the
privilege," said Lee Levine, a lawyer representing two of the journalists.
Kevin Goldberg, a lawyer for the American Society of Newspaper Editors,
said: "I think that because of the magnitude not only of the (Wen Ho Lee)
case and the very sensitive issues, but also the prominence of the
journalists involved, that it will be a precedent-setting case."
Lee subpoenaed the five reporters in hopes their testimony would prove the
U.S. Departments of Justice and Energy and the FBI violated his privacy
rights.
U.S. law does not grant absolute privilege to journalists, which would be
comparable to that of a priest or a doctor, but reporters have long argued
that the First Amendment implicitly grants that privilege.
Lee was fired from his job at the Energy Department's Los Alamos National
Laboratory in March 1999 amid allegations of spying for China.
He only pleaded guilty to one count of downloading nuclear weapons design
secrets to a non-secure computer after the government's case against him
collapsed.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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