ASNE, the nation’s largest organization of directing editors of daily newspapers, issued a statement after U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson held five journalists – two from The New York Times and one each from The Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press and CNN – in contempt for refusing to disclose names of confidential sources that gave them information about Wen Ho Lee, a former Los Alamos nuclear scientist once suspected of espionage. 

The ASNE statement, from President Karla Garrett Harshaw and FOI chair Andrew N. Alexander:

"Those who believe in a free press should be alarmed by Judge Jackson’s order that journalists be held in contempt for refusing to disclose the names of confidential sources. His ruling, coming on the heels of a similar ruling by another federal judge against a Time magazine reporter, sends a chilling message to reporters and is an affront to the First Amendment.

“Ultimately, the public loses. Every day, confidential sources provide journalists with information about alleged wrongdoing, especially when it pertains to the functioning of government. After that information is verified for its accuracy, the resulting news stories serve to enlighten the public about official corruption and misconduct. By seeking to remove that First Amendment shield, judges are stifling the free flow of information and making if difficult for journalists to provide the public with important information.

“These rulings also send a horrible message to journalists in many other countries who routinely are subjected to harassment and coercion by public officials who do not believe in a free press. When our courts threaten journalists with imprisonment or heavy fines if they refuse to reveal their confidential sources, they are giving comfort to the forces of repression.

“The effect of these court rulings is that the press is in danger of becoming merely an investigative tool for prosecutors and litigants.”

Judge Thomas’s citation, which carried $500 per day fines for the journalists, was preceded last week by a ruling in Washington in which a Time magazine reporter was held in contempt and sentenced to jail and fined for refusing to identify a confidential source in a criminal investigation that involved the leak of the name of a covert CIA agent. A number of other journalists in Washington and around the country have also been subpoenaed and/or have been held in contempt in recent weeks. At this point, the imposition of fines and jail time is being withheld pending court appeals.

Harshaw is editor of the Springfield News-Sun in Ohio and senior editor of Cox Community Newspapers. Alexander is Washington Bureau chief of Cox Newspapers. ASNE, with about 800 members, has since its founding in 1922 been a leader in defense of the First Amendment rights of a free press.