Times reporter ordered to testify loses appeal quest

New York Times reporter James Risen lost a bid to obtain an en banc hearing before the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He is now expected to take his case to the Supreme Court. A three-judge panel of the court ruled 2-1 in July to order Risen to testify in the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, a C.I.A. officer under prosecution for violating the Espionage Act in revealing secret information to Risen for his b2006 book, “State of War.” (The New York Times, October 15, 2013, by Charlie Savage)

The dissenting judge in the July decision, Roger L. Gregory, wrote, “An independent press is as indispensable to liberty as is an independent judiciary. For public opinion to serve as a meaningful check on government power, the press must be free to report to the people the government’s use (or misuse) of that power. Denying reporters a privilege in the criminal context would be gravely detrimental to our great nation.” (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, October 16, 2013, by Latara Appleby)

New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan applauded Risen’s plan to appeal to the Supreme Court. “As the Obama administration has engaged in a historic crackdown on leakers, reporters have found it harder and harder to do their jobs. That ‘chilling effect’ on news-gathering is harmful to the way the nation’s founders intended our democracy to work,” she wrote. (The New York Times, October 16, 2013, by Margaret Sullivan)