Assault on Journalistic Freedom & 1st Amendment - Beyond Tiki

C christiki295 Member LA-2547 mls east Hawaii &5500 Easter Is Joined: Apr 09, 2003 Posts: 3837	C christiki295 Posted posted on Thu, Dec 9, 2004 8:08 PM PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Dec. 9) - A TV reporter was sentenced Thursday to six months of home confinement for refusing to say who leaked him an FBI videotape of a politician taking a bribe. Jim Taricani, 55, could have gotten up to six months in federal prison. He was found guilty last month of criminal contempt for defying U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres' order to identify his source. The Taricani had argued that he had promised to protect his source's identity. Taricani, who has a transplanted heart, had asked for less than 30 days of home confinement because of his health problems. Prosecutors asked for six months of confinement at home. Taricani is one of several journalists nationwide who have become locked in First Amendment battles with the government over confidential sources. That includes reporters for Time and The New York Times who have been threatened with jail as part of an investigation into the disclosure of an undercover CIA officer's identity. In the Providence case, the FBI tape of a former mayoral aide taking a $1,000 payoff was part of a corruption probe that ultimately sent city officials, including former Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, to federal prison. Taricani broke no law by airing the tape, but attorneys, investigators and defendants were under court order not to disseminate any tapes connected to the probe, and a special prosecutor had been appointed to find out who leaked the tape. After a three-year investigation failed to urn up the source, Torres found Taricani in civil contempt in and began fining him $1,000 a day to compel him to speak. Taricani refused, saying he had an obligation to his source, and ran up $85,000 in fines, paid for by his employer, NBC-affiliated WJR, before the judge turned up the pressure by charging him with criminal contempt. The reporter called his Nov. 18 criminal contempt verdict an "assault on journalistic freedom." https://tikicentral.com/newtopic.php?forum=6 [ Edited by: christiki295 on 2004-12-09 20:09 ]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Dec. 9) - A TV reporter was sentenced Thursday to six months of home confinement for refusing to say who leaked him an FBI videotape of a politician taking a bribe.

Jim Taricani, 55, could have gotten up to six months in federal prison. He was found guilty last month of criminal contempt for defying U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres' order to identify his source. The Taricani had argued that he had promised to protect his source's identity.

Taricani, who has a transplanted heart, had asked for less than 30 days of home confinement because of his health problems. Prosecutors asked for six months of confinement at home.

Taricani is one of several journalists nationwide who have become locked in First Amendment battles with the government over confidential sources. That includes reporters for Time and The New York Times who have been threatened with jail as part of an investigation into the disclosure of an undercover CIA officer's identity.

In the Providence case, the FBI tape of a former mayoral aide taking a $1,000 payoff was part of a corruption probe that ultimately sent city officials, including former Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, to federal prison.

Taricani broke no law by airing the tape, but attorneys, investigators and defendants were under court order not to disseminate any tapes connected to the probe, and a special prosecutor had been appointed to find out who leaked the tape.

After a three-year investigation failed to urn up the source, Torres found Taricani in civil contempt in and began fining him $1,000 a day to compel him to speak. Taricani refused, saying he had an obligation to his source, and ran up $85,000 in fines, paid for by his employer, NBC-affiliated WJR, before the judge turned up the pressure by charging him with criminal contempt.

The reporter called his Nov. 18 criminal contempt verdict an "assault on journalistic freedom."

https://tikicentral.com/newtopic.php?forum=6

[ Edited by: christiki295 on 2004-12-09 20:09 ]

Post #130106 by christiki295 on Thu, Dec 9, 2004 8:08 PM