Now if we Could Just Get Rid of That Pesky Patriot Act

In a closely followed court proceeding,  a California court today decided that a reporter could not be compelled to disclose his source in an article about a Chinese espionage ring because the reporter’s First Amendment right to protect that source outweighed the government’s need to identify that source.

A May 16, 2006, story by the reporter cited unnamed "senior Justice Department officials" as the sources of information about criminal charges against a Chinese-born employee of a California defense contractor, who was accused of leaking military information to the Chinese government.  The employee was sentenced to 24 years in prison in March after being convicted last year of conspiracy to export sensitive defense information and being an unregistered foreign agent.  

The reporter was quoted after the ruling as follows:

“Today´s hearing shows that First Amendment press freedoms are under assault. Confidential sources are the lifeblood of a free press, independent of government control. Without them, most government failures and abuses of past decades would have gone unreported and uncorrected. The identity of these confidential news sources must be protected if our press freedoms, fundamental to the effective functioning of our democratic system, are to endure. Efforts by government to compel reporters to disclose news sources must be resisted."