printable versionJournalists under fire
Walter Pincus (left) of the Washington Post, law Professor Kathleen Sullivan (right) and Bob Drogin of the Los Angeles Times discussed escalating legal assaults on journalists who protect anonymous sources during a panel May 8 titled "Anonymous Sources: Leaks, Accountability and The First Amendment." Visiting journalism Professor Ann Grimes moderated the event, which was sponsored by the Department of Communication.
Since 2004, Drogin has been held in contempt of a federal court for refusing to name confidential sources in his coverage of Wen Ho Lee, a former nuclear-weapons scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who was once accused of being a spy. Lee was held without bail until September 2000, when he accepted a plea bargain from the federal government. Lee is suing the government for violating his privacy. His lawyers subpoenaed a group of reporters, including Drogin, to obtain the names of their confidential government sources. Lee's attorneys are pursuing Pincus, as well, but his case is moving separately through the courts. (Pincus also has been subpoenaed in the Valerie Plame leak case.) On May 15, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce whether it will consider Drogin's and Pincus's appeals.