San Francisco Chronicle Sept. 24, 2006
Excerpt:
YES, we're deeply
concerned about the fate of our courageous colleagues, Lance Williams
and Mark Fainaru-Wada, who are risking prison sentences to assert their
journalistic duty -- their First Amendment right, in our view -- to
protect their confidential sources.
Their plight must be viewed in grim perspective. They are not the only
journalists under legal pressure to reveal their sources. At a Capitol
Hill hearing last week, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said a
half-dozen journalists have been fined or jailed for not revealing
sources in the past year.
Remember, the government has not suggested that Williams or
Fainaru-Wada broke any law in obtaining and then publishing material
from grand-jury proceedings in the BALCO steroids case. Laws on
grand-jury secrecy are hardly absolute. There is nothing to stop a
witness from holding a press conference to talk about what he was asked
and how he responded -- as some have done. The reason U.S. District
Judge Jeffrey White wants to put the two reporters in jail is their
refusal to tell prosecutors the source of their information.
If this were a state case, Williams and Fainaru-Wada would have nothing
to worry about. California is one of 31 states with "shield laws" that
recognize the need for reporters to protect their sources.
However, there is no similar law governing federal cases. At a U.S.
Senate hearing last week, a Bush administration official raised the
specter of terrorism and national-security breaches in outlining its
opposition to a federal shield law.
