Judge Fines Ex-Fox News Reporter for Not Revealing Sources

A federal decide held a veteran investigative reporter in contempt of courtroom on Thursday for not revealing her sources for articles she wrote a couple of scientist who was investigated by the F.B.I.

The journalist, Catherine Herridge, previously of CBS News and Fox News, was ordered to pay $800 a day till she divulged the data. The decide, Christopher Cooper of U.S. District Court in Washington, stayed the effective for 30 days to offer Ms. Herridge time to enchantment.

The case, which has alarmed First Amendment advocates, pertains to a collection of articles that had been written by Ms. Herridge and her colleagues in 2017, whereas she labored at Fox News. The articles revealed that the F.B.I. had investigated the scientist, Dr. Yanping Chen, a Chinese American who’s the president of the University of Management and Technology in Arlington, Va., over suspicions of Chinese army ties and whether or not she had lied on U.S. immigration kinds.

The F.B.I. ended its investigation with out bringing expenses in opposition to Dr. Chen, a 12 months earlier than Ms. Herridge and her colleagues revealed and aired their reporting.

In 2018, Dr. Chen sued the F.B.I. and different authorities companies, accusing them of violating the Privacy Act by leaking data to Ms. Herridge. The Privacy Act has protections for private data collected by federal companies.

Judge Cooper dominated final 12 months that Ms. Herridge should reveal her confidential sources. On Thursday, he held her in civil contempt for disobeying that order. He stated he had not issued the order calmly, deciding that Dr. Chen’s want for the data overcame Ms. Herridge’s First Amendment protections.

“Herridge and many of her colleagues in the journalism community may disagree with that decision and prefer that a different balance be struck, but she is not permitted to flout a federal court’s order with impunity,” Judge Cooper wrote in Thursday’s ruling.

Patrick Philbin, a lawyer for Ms. Herridge, stated in an e mail: “We disagree with the district court’s decision, and to protect Ms. Herridge’s First Amendment rights, we intend to appeal.”

Ms. Herridge, who left Fox in 2019 to affix CBS News as a senior investigative correspondent, was amongst practically two dozen CBS News journalists who had been laid off by the community this month.

Andrew C. Phillips, a lawyer for Dr. Chen, stated in an announcement that with out the protections of the Privacy Act, federal regulation enforcement might “exploit its expansive powers to invade an American citizen’s private life and then selectively leak documents to smear reputations or score political points.”

“Today’s ruling is an important one to ensure that government officials can be held to account for outrageous abuses of power,” Mr. Phillips stated.

A Fox News spokeswoman stated that holding a journalist in contempt for safeguarding a confidential supply “has a deeply chilling effect on journalism.”

“Fox News Media remains committed to protecting the rights of a free press and freedom of speech and believes this decision should be appealed,” she stated.

Gabe Rottman, a senior lawyer on the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, stated on Thursday that whereas he disagreed with the ruling in opposition to Ms. Herridge, “it’s a relief that Judge Cooper is enabling her to pursue an appeal without the financial pressure of daily fines.”

“The court’s opinion makes clear that the answer here has to be Congress passing a federal shield law,” Mr. Rottman stated.