A federal judge held a veteran journalist in contempt of court Thursday for failing to disclose her sources for articles she wrote about a scientist being investigated by the FBI
The reporter, Kathryn Herridge, formerly of CBS News and Fox News, was ordered to pay $800 a day until she disclosed the information. The judge, Christopher Cooper of the US District Court in Washington, D.C., stayed the fine for 30 days to give Ms Herridge time to appeal.
The case, which has alarmed First Amendment advocates, relates to a series of articles written by Ms. Herridge and her colleagues in 2017 while she was working at Fox News. The articles revealed that the FBI had investigated the scientist, Dr. Yanping Chen, a Chinese-American who is president of the University of Management and Technology in Arlington, Virginia, over suspicions of Chinese military ties and whether she had lied about immigrating to the US. forms.
The FBI ended its investigation without bringing charges against Dr. Chen a year before Ms. Herridge and her colleagues published and broadcast their report.
In 2018, Dr. Chen sued the FBI and other government agencies, accusing them of violating the Privacy Act by leaking information to Ms. Herridge. The Privacy Act provides protections for personal information collected by federal agencies.
Judge Cooper ruled last year that Ms Herridge must disclose her confidential sources. On Thursday, he held her in contempt for violating that order. He said he had not issued the order lightly, ruling that Dr. Chen’s need for the information outweighed Ms. Herridge’s First Amendment protections.
“Herridge and many of her colleagues in the journalistic community may disagree with this decision and prefer a different balance to be struck, but she cannot defy a federal court decision with impunity,” Judge Cooper wrote in Thursday’s ruling.
Patrick Philbin, a lawyer for Ms. Herridge, said in an email: “We disagree with the district court’s decision, and to protect Ms. Herridge’s First Amendment rights, we plan to appeal.”
Ms. Herridge, who left Fox in 2019 to join CBS News as a senior investigative correspondent, was among nearly a dozen CBS News reporters fired by the network this month.
Andrew C. Phillips, attorney for Dr. Chen, said in a statement that without the protections of the Privacy Act, federal law enforcement authorities could “take advantage of their extensive powers to invade the privacy of an American citizen and then selectively leak documents to smear the reputation of or score political points’.
“Today’s decision is important to ensure that government officials can be held to account for outrageous abuses of power,” Mr Phillips said.
A Fox News spokeswoman said a reporter’s disregard for protecting a confidential source “has a deeply chilling effect on journalism.”
“Fox News Media remains committed to protecting the rights of a free press and free speech and believes this decision should be appealed,” he said.
Gabe Rottman, senior staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said Thursday that while he disagreed with the ruling against Ms. Herridge, “it’s a relief that Judge Cooper is allowing her to appeal without the financial burden of daily fines.”
“The court’s opinion makes clear that the answer here must be for Congress to pass a federal shield law,” Mr. Rottman said.
