Reporter refuses to reveal sources
from 2001 anthrax story
 |
| Reporter Toni Locy could be forced to pay $5,000 a day for refusing to reveal her sources. (Rockbridge Report) |
In her career as a reporter, Toni Locy spent countless hours in courtrooms while covering the federal judicial system. Lately, however, Locy has been in court for an entirely different reason.
On Feb. 19, Federal District Judge Reggie Walton ordered Locy to turn over the names of several confidential sources in the FBI and Department of Justice who gave her information when she was reporting for USA Today about the 2001 anthrax attacks that left five people dead. She faces a fine of $5,000 per day if she refuses to comply.
Locy, who lectured at Washington and Lee University last week, is refusing to hand over those names, arguing that giving up the confidential sources could jeopardize the jobs of those federal employees.
The article was about Steven Hatfill, a former Army scientist who became the focus of intense police and media investigation after former Attorney General John Ashcroft named Hatfill a “person of interest” in the anthrax investigation.
According to The New York Times, Walton told the court there is “not a scintilla of evidence to suggest Dr. Hatfill had anything to do with it.”
Hatfill was never charged with a crime. He filed a civil suit against the government claiming the agencies in charge of the investigation framed him in the case. He is arguing that the government and various FBI and Department of Justice employees violated the Privacy Act by releasing information about him to reporters.
Hatfill and his lawyers said the government went on “a highly public campaign to accuse Dr. Hatfill without formally naming him a suspect or charging him with any wrongdoing.”
Hatfill and his lawyers subpoenaed several reporters, claiming information on confidential sources will help them present their case. Only Locy and one other reporter, Jim Stewart of CBS News, remain involved. The other reporters’ subpoenas were lifted for “procedural problems and other issues,” according to The New York Times.
Hatfill sued reporter Nicholas Kristof and The New York Times in 2004, but the case was thrown out.
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said Walton’s decision to hold Locy in contempt will make it more difficult for reporters to report on criminal investigations.
“Sources have already refused to talk with us,” Dalglish said. “You can’t blame them; the stakes are particularly high.”
Reporters have been subpoenaed in several recent cases when confidential sources leaked grand jury testimony or other classified information to the media. Still, Dalglish says Locy’s case is different from these earlier incidents.
“This is a civil case,” Dalglish said. “National security is not implicated in any way.”
Journalists have been battling to protect confidential sources for decades. Most states have shield laws that – in most cases – protect journalists from having to reveal sources, and a federal shield law is currently being considered by Congress.
Dalglish said Locy would be protected by the federal shield law and said the case might help the law make it through Congress during the current session.
Locy said she never expected this story to land her in front of a judge.
“I wrote this story almost five years ago,” Locy said. “It was a routine story, one of thousands I have written. … I had a pool of sources, roughly 10 or 12 who I would routinely call. … My problem is that I can’t recall which of the four sources I used in the story at issue.”
Hatfill’s lawyers are asking Locy to surrender all of her confidential sources.
“That’s something I don’t want to do because these folks weren’t sources just for anthrax; they were sources for other, far more sensitive stories,” Locy said.
She said she is confident that her sources were not using her to press their case against Hatfill.
“You always have to guard against being used by officials because they will try to spin you,”
Locy said. “As a reporter, you have to take whatever steps you can to avoid being used, and I did that in Dr. Hatfill’s case.”
Locy said her lawyers have asked her to get waivers from her sources that would allow her to break the confidentiality agreement they had previously set. She said those conversations have been some of the most difficult phone calls of her career.
“Essentially what you are asking, no matter how you sugarcoat it, you are asking that source to throw himself of herself in front of the train to save yourself,” Locy said.
For now, Locy isn’t planning on using the waivers. Walton has agreed to consider suspending the fines until Locy and her lawyers can appeal his decision. He has not indicated when he will issue a decision on the suspension.
Hatfill and his lawyers are requesting that Locy – not USA Today – be forced to pay the fines.
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