Judge Fines Ex-Fox News Reporter for Not Revealing Sources
A federal judge on Thursday held a veteran investigative journalist in contempt of court for failing to disclose her sources for articles she wrote about a scientist investigated by the FBI.
The journalist, Catherine Herridge, formerly of CBS News and Fox News, was ordered to pay $800 a day until she made the information public. The judge, Christopher Cooper of the US District Court in Washington, suspended the fine for 30 days to give Ms Herridge time to appeal.
The case, which has alarmed First Amendment advocates, involves a range of… Article which were 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 American immigration. forms.
The FBI ended its investigation without filing charges against Dr. Chen, a year before Ms. Herridge and her colleagues published and broadcast their reporting.
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 reveal her confidential sources. On Thursday, he held her in civil contempt for disobeying that order. He said he did not issue the order lightly and decided that Dr. Chen to the information overcame Ms. Herridge’s First Amendment protections.
“Herridge and many of her colleagues in the journalism community may disagree with that decision and prefer that a different balance be struck, but she should not be allowed to defy a federal court order with impunity disregard,” Judge Cooper wrote in Thursday’s ruling.
Patrick Philbin, an attorney 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 two dozen CBS News journalists fired by the network this month.
Andrew C. Phillips, an attorney for Dr. Chen, said in a statement that without the protections of the Privacy Act, federal law enforcement “could abuse its sweeping powers to invade the private life of a U.S. citizen and then selectively leak documents to smear reputations or score political points.” ”
“Today’s ruling is important to ensure that public officials are held accountable for excessive abuse of power,” said Mr. Phillips.
A Fox News spokeswoman said holding a journalist in contempt 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 freedom of expression and believes this decision should be appealed,” she said.
Gabe Rottman, a senior attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said Thursday that while he disagreed with the ruling against Ms. Herridge, “it is a relief that Judge Cooper is allowing her to appeal without the financial pressure from 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.