Contempt Of Court Rulings Jeopardize Public’s Right To Know.

The Radio-Television News Directors Association has joined forces with other news media groups to protest recent rulings ordering fines and possible jail sentences for reporters who refuse to reveal their confidential sources.

In the most recent case, the judge in the Wen Ho Lee case held five reporters in contempt for refusing to identify their sources. Lee, a former nuclear weapons scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is seeking the identities of confidential sources from network television reporter Pierre Thomas and four others. The judge has imposed a fine of $500 a day on each reporter. That ruling is being appealed.

In the case involving the leak of the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, journalists have been ordered to testify about confidential sources.

“These rulings are very disturbing because they attempt to force reporters to break their commitments to confidential sources,” says Barbara Cochran, RTNDA president. “That could make whistleblowers less likely to come forward in the future and would mean the public would not get information it should have.”

“These cases represent a grave danger to a free press and to the obligations it has to a free society,” says Bob Priddy, RTNDA chairman and news director at Missourinet in Jefferson City, MO. “The chilling effects of jailing journalists for doing their jobs as trustees of the public are immense. We cannot back away from these threats.”

The statement endorsed by 28 journalism groups is at http://www.rcfp.org/standup . Individual journalists can sign the statement through the website.

RTNDA is the world’s largest professional organization devoted exclusively to electronic journalism. RTNDA represents local and network news professionals in broadcasting, cable and other electronic media in more than 30 countries.