Faced with subpoenas to testify about notes and sources, Silicon Valley Voice editor Angie Tolliver felt marooned when a lawyer who had done some pro bono work for her asked for a $25,000 retainer, a potentially devastating expense for the small community newspaper.
“When I heard the five-figure fee for a retainer, I gasped,” said Tolliver. “We are a small independent publication and do not have that type of disposable income. An unplanned expense like that could easily break a publication our size.”
Assistant Editor Carolyn Schuk suggested contacting the First Amendment Coalition, and days later, the subpoenas were withdrawn.
The issue arose when Santa Clara Councilman Anthony Becker was accused of leaking a grand jury report critical of the council’s dealings with the San Francisco 49ers. Becker was charged with felony perjury and misdemeanor violation of duty regarding the leak. Becker’s lawyers subpoenaed both Tolliver and Schuk to testify at a trial they originally intended to cover.
“There was no way we were giving up sources,” said Tolliver. FAC’s Legal Director David Loy persuaded Becker’s lawyers to withdraw the subpoenas after the court expressed strong concerns about their subpoena to another publication.
Loy said the press should not be used as a witness in a civil or criminal case, as it would erode public trust so no one would talk to the press out of fear of either being exposed or having to testify in a lawsuit, or both.
The California Shield Law recognizes that the flow of information to the public is one of the cornerstones of press freedom. Under the law, reporters cannot be held in contempt for refusing to reveal confidential sources except for rare circumstances, which did not exist in this case, when the information is vital to the defense in a criminal case.
“It is very important to recognize the press as an important hallmark of a free society, the fourth estate,” said Loy.
For Tolliver, blocking the subpoena meant, among other things, that the Silicon Valley Voice was able to do its job – it could sit in the courtroom to cover Becker’s trial instead of its reporter potentially being excluded from the courtroom as a witness.