Reporter Convicted for Protecting Source

[Krimson Klaw]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041118/D86EE5F00.html

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A television reporter was convicted of criminal contempt Thursday for refusing to say who gave him an FBI videotape showing a city official taking a bribe.

Jim Taricani, of WJAR-TV, faces up to six months in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 9 by U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres.

Taricani, 55, broke no law by repeatedly airing the tape, but a special prosecutor was appointed to find out who leaked it because the court had ordered attorneys, investigators and defendants not to disseminate any tapes connected to a federal corruption probe during former Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci Jr.'s administration.

The tape, which shows an undercover FBI informant giving a cash-stuffed envelope to top Cianci aide Frank Corrente, aired in 2001, two months before Cianci, Corrente and others were indicted in the investigation code-named "Operation Plunder Dome." Cianci and Corrente were convicted and are serving time in federal prison.


(AP) TV news reporter Jim Taricani, center, speaks to reporters following being found guilty of...
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Torres has said the leak was meant to either disrupt the investigation or deprive defendants of a fair trial by influencing prospective jurors. He ordered Taricani to answer questions about the tape last fall, but Taricani refused, saying he has a First Amendment right to keep his sources confidential.

After his 45-minute trial Thursday, Taricani called the conviction an "assault on journalistic freedom" and said he never expected to have to behind bars for doing his job.

"I made a promise to my source, which I intend to keep," Taricani said.

In March, Torres found Taricani in civil contempt for refusing to disclose his source and imposed a $1,000-a-day fine until he did. WJAR, which is owned by NBC Universal Television Group, paid $85,000 for its reporter until judge suspended the fine two weeks ago, saying it had not achieved its goal.

Torres had said before Thursday's trial that he wouldn't sentence Taricani to more than six months in prison because of the reporter's health. Taricani underwent heart transplant surgery in 1996.

Taricani would be the first to serve time on a criminal contempt among a crop of reporters around the country to serve time on a criminal contempt charge. Around the nation, several reporters face possible fines or jail, including the cases of the leaked identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame and a lawsuit against the government by nuclear physicist Wen Ho Lee.

I did not think the government could do this. So they are sending a journallist to jail for not breaking his promise to his source to not reveal said person? It says in the article that he broke no laws by airing the tape, so I don't get it.

[Fash]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041118/D86EE5F00.html

a special prosecutor was appointed to find out who leaked it because the court had ordered attorneys, investigators and defendants not to disseminate any tapes connected to a federal corruption probe during former Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci Jr.'s administration.

I did not think the government could do this. So they are sending a journallist to jail for not breaking his promise to his source to not reveal said person? It says in the article that he broke no laws by airing the tape, so I don't get it.

The court ordered that the tapes not be leaked, they were leaked, and the only person who can answer the question, the reporter, refuses. The source for the tapes broke the judge's order, and the reporter should give him up. That's why he is in criminal contempt.

[Avryce]

I found the tape on a park bench your honor with no one else around it and no idea what it contained upon first locating it.

[Tenuvil]

This is fucking PROVIDENCE. He says who gave him the tape and his source sleeps with the fishes.

[Winnow]

I found the tape on a park bench your honor with no one else around it and no idea what it contained upon first locating it.

Exactly. What's with this guy...he must have made a mistake and initially bragged that someone handed the tape to him so he can't take the obvious way out by saying, "it was on mys doorstep".

[Voronwë]

well it probably helped the credibility of his story to be able to say "some FBI dude" gave it to me (or whoever it was).

i can only hope this means Bob Novak is headed to the slammer.

[Kylere]

Damn shame, any judge trying to force a journalist to reveal a source when they is not a future crime on the line should have to share a cell with the journalist.

[Zaelath]

Damn shame, any judge trying to force a journalist to reveal a source when they is not a future crime on the line should have to share a cell with the journalist.

I would tend to agree w/ that, except I'm not sure a leaky FBI is your best defense against future crime..

[Kylere]

Damn shame, any judge trying to force a journalist to reveal a source when they is not a future crime on the line should have to share a cell with the journalist.

I would tend to agree w/ that, except I'm not sure a leaky FBI is your best defense against future crime..

Should have been "when THERE is a "

Zaelath, We need a leaky FBI when the FBI is in the wrong, it makes the nation stronger.

[Zaelath]

Not necessarily.. I'm sure a "lesser of two evils" argument can be made for the FBI suppressing an investigation, I just can't be bothered to come up with a hypothetical people will just ignore

On the whole though.. I don't think this bodes well for us ever seeing an "independant media" again in our lifetime.

It's funny, people will *still* look at Russia and China and bemoan how their media are a sham that just puts forward the government's agenda. They don't look internally however and see that their media is being run by a few rich assholes and used to forward their agenda..