Yet again, the out-of-control federal judiciary is trying to deputize journalists by forcing them to either reveal their sources or go to jail.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A federal judge told two San Francisco Chronicle reporters they must comply with a subpoena and tell a grand jury who leaked them secret testimony of Barry Bonds and other elite athletes ensnared in the government’s steroid probe.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White means reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada must appear before a grand jury investigating the leak unless a higher court blocks the ruling. The pair have said they would not testify and would go to jail rather than reveal their source or sources.
It would seem that the government has decided that when they can’t break a case (which is apparently pretty often these days, judging from how many times this is happening) they’ll just get the journalists involved to rat out their sources. Sorry guys, but it doesn’t work that way.
The First Amendment is there to protect the press from interference by the government. Apparently the government didn’t get the memo.
MyWay News via Slobokan
[tags]journalism, free press, freedom of the press[/tags]