http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/ne...t_id=1000974348

Miller Refuses to Name Source, Sentenced to Jail

By E&P Staff

Published: July 06, 2005 3:20 PM ET

WASHINGTON After Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper agreed Wednesday to testify about his sources the Valerie Plame/CIA leak case, Judith Miller of The New York Times continued to refuse to testify, and was sentenced to jail.

She was taken into custody in the courtroom and faces up to four months in jail. Her attorney Floyd Abrams and New York Times executive editor Bill Keller held a press conference afteward.

Miller said she did want to go to jail but had no choice but to protect her sources. "If journalists cannot be trusted to keep confidences, then journalists cannot function and there cannot be a free press," she said.

"There is still a realistic possibility that confinement might cause her to testify," U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan said.

Miller stood up, hugged her lawyer and was escorted from the courtroom.

Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., publisher of The New York Times, issued this statement: “There are times when the greater good of our democracy demands an act of conscience. Judy has chosen such an act in honoring her promise of confidentiality to her sources. She believes, as do we, that the free flow of information is critical to an informed citizenry.

"I sincerely hope that now Congress will move forward on federal shield legislation so that other journalists will not have to face imprisonment for doing their jobs.

“In the days, weeks and months ahead, The New York Times Company will do all that we can to ensure Judy's safety and continue to fight for the principles that led her to make a most difficult and honorable choice.”

The prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald responded to Miller's refusal to name her source by saying "we can't have 50,000 journalists" each making their own decision about whether to reveal sources. We cannot tolerate that," he said. "We are trying to get to the bottom of whether a crime was committed and by whom."

Miller attorney Robert Bennett said prosecutors traditionally have shown great respect for journalists and "have had the good judgment not to push these cases very often."

"The interests of justice are often served with a bit of humility and respect for people in the position Judy Miller is in and with a heavy dose of compassion and understanding," he said.

Cooper said he had been told earlier that his source had signed a general waiver of confidentiality but that he did not trust such waivers because he thought they had been gained from executive branch employees under duress. He told the court that he needed not a general waiver but a specific waiver from his source, which he did not get until Wednesday.

"I received express personal consent" from the source, Cooper told the judge.

Hogan and Fitzgerald accepted Cooper's offer.

Many on the left are cheering Miller's jailing because she has written articles favorable to the Bush admin and the source she seems to be protecting is in the WH. While I wish she would out the SOB whoever it is, as one who has studied Journalism I can see why she would not. She would lose all credibility as a journalist. In Cooper's case, Time is backing him up and the source gave him the ok to testify. I suppose the NYT wants Miller to be some sort of martyr. I hope Congress does pass some sort of Federal Shield Law. Some things go beyond politics.