United States
USA Today journalist appeal has been upheldPosted Apr 19 2008
Toni Locy, a former USA Today reporter, was held in contempt of court by a district judge Feb. 18 for refusing to reveal her sources and was ordered to pay a fine of up to $5,000 a day.
A U.S. Court of Appeals, however, ordered a stay and suspended the previous court order on March 11 so that Locy is no longer required to pay the fines.
Locy will not reveal her sources for articles she wrote in 2002 about a former army scientist as a suspect in a series of anthrax attacks.
USA Today published two articles in 2002 with Locy’s byline about scientist Steven J. Hatfill and the late 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States.
Hatfill, who was never charged with a crime, is suing the U.S. Justice Department, citing the federal Privacy Act and accusing U.S. officials of leaking information about him to journalists who identified Hatfill as a “person of interest” in a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into the anthrax attacks, CPJ reports.