Editorial: A Reporter walks free

Monday, Oct. 3, 2005 | 8:56 a.m.

New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who was released from jail Friday on the condition that she testify before a federal grand jury that is investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity, is breathing the sweet air of freedom after spending 85 days behind bars. Miller, jailed for refusing to reveal the identity of a confidential source, agreed to testify only after receiving a personal letter and telephone call from the source releasing her from their agreement.

Miller never wrote an article about her conversations with the source, whose name she still did not reveal publicly Friday. But he was identified by her newspaper and others as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney.

Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper both faced jail time for failing to reveal the names of sources with whom they spoke in researching the identity leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Cooper avoided going to jail after his source allowed him to testify. Plame's identity was leaked to syndicated columnist Robert Novak after her husband, Joseph Wilson, wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times critical of the Bush administration. Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador who went on a CIA mission to uncover evidence of Saddam Hussein's reported weapons of mass destruction, had written that he found no such evidence.

It is important to know that someone inside our government stooped to revealing a covert agent's identity when her husband publicly questioned the reasons for going to war. It is equally important to ensure that those trying to expose such behavior can gather the information without fear of going to jail. Although Miller walks free, the attitude that placed her behind bars persists and threatens the underpinnings of a free and open press.

The press is not free when the government coerces reporters into revealing sources who, without confidentiality, would never blow the whistle.