Reply #17: PROTECTING SOURCES: Reporters face jail after court declines to step in

[XemaSab]

1st Amendment issue remains unsettled in case where CIA agent's ID was divulged

Two reporters are a step closer to jail after the Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a case that could have decided whether journalists can be forced to reveal their confidential sources.

Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine each face up to 18 months in jail on contempt of court charges imposed last year by U.S. District Judge Frank Hogan in Washington, D.C.

Hogan ordered the reporters to jail after they refused to tell a grand jury who had given them information about the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. The grand jury is investigating who leaked the name of the undercover agent, which is a federal crime. Plame's name became public in a July 2003 syndicated column by Robert Novak.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/28/MNG1ADFUBK1.DTL