WASHINGTON — In a major decision about press freedoms, a divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that James Risen, an author and reporter for The New York Times, must testify in the criminal trial of a former CIA official charged with providing him with classified information.
In a 118-page set of opinions, two members of a three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond — the court whose decisions cover the Pentagon and the CIA — ruled that the First Amendment provides no protection to reporters who receive unauthorized leaks from being forced to testify against the people suspected of leaking to them....
But it does protect authorized ones, huh? Like a CIA agent being outed?
Risen has vowed to appeal any loss at the appeals court to the Supreme Court, and to go to prison rather than testify about his sources. On Friday, he referred a request to comment to his lawyer, Joel Kurtzberg, who wrote in an e-mail: “We are disappointed by and disagree with the court’s decision. We are currently evaluating our next steps.”
You would be doing it for all of us, Jim. Thanks.
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Related:
"New guidelines will protect journalists’ phone records
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder, who was criticized for the Justice Department’s tactics in secretly obtaining phone logs and e-mails of journalists reporters as part of leak investigations, announced guidelines Friday that would narrow the circumstances under which records can be obtained.
Holder outlined changes to the Justice Department’s investigative guidelines that would prevent the FBI from portraying a reporter as a co-conspirator in a criminal leak as a way to get around a legal bar on secret search warrants for reporting materials."
Not exactly helping you, is he?
