Editorial: Free press at stake

Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2005 | 9:21 a.m.

Two reporters, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, are facing a jail sentence. Their crime? Refusing to divulge sources they spoke with while researching a mystery of national interest: Who leaked the name of a confidential CIA operative to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak? The online edition of Time ran Cooper's story on July 17, 2003. No story by Miller on the subject was ever even published.

On Tuesday a lower court's decision to hold the two in contempt for their silence was upheld by a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court. We hope the full appeals court overturns the panel's decision. Or, if the case gets to the Supreme Court, that it will be overturned there.

It will be a free press in name only if government begins coercing reporters into revealing their sources. Reporters are not above the law, but they are recognized throughout the country as having the privilege to keep their sources confidential. States have passed shield laws that recognize this privilege. A federal shield law is long overdue, and Congress should pass one this session.