Appeals Court Blocks $5K a Day Fines Against Reporter

Media & Communications Law

Appeals Court Blocks $5K a Day Fines Against Reporter

Posted Mar 12, 2008, 05:58 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A federal appeals court has issued a stay blocking fines of up to $5,000 a day for a former USA Today reporter who did not reveal her sources for articles about the 2001 anthrax attacks.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a stay pending appeal yesterday in a brief, one-page order.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton had found reporter Toni Locy in contempt in an invasion of privacy suit by former Army scientist Steven Hatfill, identified in news reports as a person of interest in the attacks. Locy has said she can’t remember which government sources gave her information identifying Hatfill, the Associated Press reports. Hatfill was never charged and the crime remains unsolved.

Walton had ordered fines against Locy of $500 a day for the first week, $1,000 a day the second week, and $5,000 a day from that point on. Locy makes about $75,000 a year as a journalism professor.

"I am relieved and thankful that the court of appeals has found that my legal arguments are worthy of consideration," she told AP.

Close to 30 news organizations and journalism groups filed amicus briefs urging the court to grant the stay, the National Press Photographers Association reports. The court’s action came the same day that more than 50 media companies sent letters to Senate leaders seeking passage of a federal shield law, the Free Flow of Information Act, to protect journalists asked to name confidential sources.

The bill gives journalists a qualified privilege to protect sources. It includes exceptions for terrorism, eyewitness observations of criminal conduct, and the prevention of death or substantial bodily harm.

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