ALSO VISIT

New York Times reporter Judith Miller has been jailed by a Special Prosecutor investigating the leak by White House officials of the identity of an undercover CIA agent to the press. She could face up to four months in prison, for violating a court order which she believes runs contrary to the constitutionally protected press freedoms. Investigating who in the White House leaked the name of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press in the summer of 2003, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had demanded full testimony by reporters Judith Miller (of The New York Times) and Matthew Cooper (of TIME) regarding the identity of the sources they used to write stories about the controversy.

Many believe the subpoena and the subsequent contempt hearings signal an assault on the First Amendment's vital "freedom of the press", moreso because many details of the case make it unclear what value Miller's testimony would have, whether other reporters (such as Robert Novak, who first published the leaked name) have faced similar prosecutorial rigors, and whether the prosecutor actually has a constitutional right to impose such a subpoena. It is also unclear whether other journalists, who testified but answered only limited questions, withholding information about specific points of conversation with sources, may have in such a way protected sources against incrimination, presumably in the same way in which the prosecutor believes Ms. Miller's silence would do.

Fitzgerald has reportedly claimed to know the name of Miller's source, and alleges that the source has given Miller a waiver of the confidentiality Miller seeks to protect. There is no clear proof that the prosecutor does in fact know the identity of Miller's source, as Miller has not herself revealed the source's name. This raises the issue of whether Miller's testimony is even necessary to the investigation, and the possibility that the prosecutor's office seeks to diminish the freedom of journalists through bringing these charges.

Miller says that any "official" waiver signed by the source and by other White House personnel, through the prosecutor's office should be considered coerced, as no such waiver was offered to the reporter by the source directly, and both the source's employer and a prosecutor with state leverage could logically have exerted pressure to obtain that waiver.

In her statement to the judge in the last hearing before she was imprisoned, Judith Miller cited the vital constitutional role given to the press as "guarantor" of the rule of law, in reference to Thomas Jefferson. She specified:

"I believe that a free press depends now more than ever on people willing to express their views, particularly those in government. From my experience, and the experience of investigative journalists like me, I know that many of these people in government will not talk to reporters if we cannot be trusted to protect their identity. The risks are too great; the government is too powerful; the country is too polarized."

The nation faces in this case, a fundamental debate about the reach and the limit of constitutionally protected freedoms, and Miller's jailing comes at a time when the national discourse has already spent several years moving toward the idea limiting those freedoms, under the logic of hardening security. Miller's stand, which is supported by her paper, The New York Times, is that those freedoms cannot be limited by laws which do not rise to the constitutional level, or rather, that the freedom given to the press at the founding of the country cannot be revoked by the lighter weight of the fears, pretensions, passions or inadequacies of later, less thoughtful or less democratically-minded officials. [For more: BBC]

STORY UPDATE:
MILLER RELEASED FROM CUSTODY, TESTIFIES
2 October 2005

NYT reporter Judith Miller has reportedly received a formal waiver from her confidential White House source to testify. She was released from prison on 29 September, after agreeing to speak to the grand jury investigating the leaking of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's name by top government officials in the summer of 2003.

By the time of her release, Miller had served 85 days in custody... [Full Story]