NYT reporter refuses to divulge source
jailedA Washington court sent New York Times reporter Judith Miller toprison on Wednesday for refusing to divulge the name of a source to agrand jury probing the leak of the identity of a Central IntelligenceAgency agent.
Citing Miller for contempt of court, Judge Thomas Hogan jailed theveteran reporter until she agrees to testify or until the grand jury'smandate runs out in four months.
"If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality thenjournalists cannot function. There cannot be free press," Miller toldthe judge.
"I am here today because I believe in the rule of law and your rightto send me to prison for disobeying your ruling if you choose to doso," she said.
Another journalist who had been facing possible prison time inconnection with the case, Time magazine's Matthew Cooper, told thejudge that he had agreed to testify to the grand jury.
Cooper said his source had given him a personal waiver allowing him totestify."
I am prepared to testify. I will comply" with the court's order,Cooper told Hogan.
Cooper took the podium in the court and told the judge, "Last night Ihugged my son goodbye and told him it might be a long time before Isee him again."
"I went to bed ready to accept the sanctions" for not testifying,Cooper said. But he told the judge that not long before his earlyafternoon appearance, he had received "in somewhat dramatic fashion" adirect personal communication from his source freeing him from hiscommitment to keep the source's identity secret.
Miller and Cooper have been at the centre of a high-stakes case thickwith political intrigue, enmeshing the White House, press freedom andthe rationale for the Iraq war.
They had refused to name their sources to a federal prosecutorexamining which Bush administration official leaked the name of CIAspy Valerie Plame during a fierce row over Iraq's alleged weapons ofmass destruction program.
Plame's husband, former US ambassador Joseph Wilson, claimed her coverwas blown in revenge for an article he penned in The New York Timescriticising Bush's justification for war with Iraq.July 07, 2005 http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/jul/07press.htm
Citing Miller for contempt of court, Judge Thomas Hogan jailed theveteran reporter until she agrees to testify or until the grand jury'smandate runs out in four months.
"If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality thenjournalists cannot function. There cannot be free press," Miller toldthe judge.
"I am here today because I believe in the rule of law and your rightto send me to prison for disobeying your ruling if you choose to doso," she said.
Another journalist who had been facing possible prison time inconnection with the case, Time magazine's Matthew Cooper, told thejudge that he had agreed to testify to the grand jury.
Cooper said his source had given him a personal waiver allowing him totestify."
I am prepared to testify. I will comply" with the court's order,Cooper told Hogan.
Cooper took the podium in the court and told the judge, "Last night Ihugged my son goodbye and told him it might be a long time before Isee him again."
"I went to bed ready to accept the sanctions" for not testifying,Cooper said. But he told the judge that not long before his earlyafternoon appearance, he had received "in somewhat dramatic fashion" adirect personal communication from his source freeing him from hiscommitment to keep the source's identity secret.
Miller and Cooper have been at the centre of a high-stakes case thickwith political intrigue, enmeshing the White House, press freedom andthe rationale for the Iraq war.
They had refused to name their sources to a federal prosecutorexamining which Bush administration official leaked the name of CIAspy Valerie Plame during a fierce row over Iraq's alleged weapons ofmass destruction program.
Plame's husband, former US ambassador Joseph Wilson, claimed her coverwas blown in revenge for an article he penned in The New York Timescriticising Bush's justification for war with Iraq.July 07, 2005 http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/jul/07press.htm
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