JURIST - Paper Chase: Federal appeals court upholds contempt finding against 4 reporters

[JURIST] A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday upheld civil contempt of court findings against four reporters unwilling to reveal their sources for articles about Los Alamos [official website] nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee [Wikipedia profile]. The court did overturn a lower court's contempt ruling for a fifth journalist, Jeff Gerth. Read the opinion [PDF]. The four journalists found in contempt are Robert Drogin and James Risen of the Los Angeles Times, H. Josef Hebert of the Associated Press, and Pierre Thomas, previously with CNN and now with ABC. Lee lost his job at Los Alamos in 1999 over allegations of espionage and later pled guilty to a lesser charge. He sued for the disclosure of personal information by US agencies but the four reporters refused to provide details about their sources. AP has more.

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