Press Release

NAHJ Calls Taricani Conviction An Attack Against Journalists' First Amendment Rights

Washington, D.C. -- The National Association of Hispanic Journalists condemns last Thursday's criminal contempt conviction of WJAR-TV News reporter Jim Taricani, the latest in a broadening assault on the First Amendment, and urges the court to overturn all charges.

NAHJ also joins the Radio Television News Directors Association and other journalism organizations in calling on Congress to enact a federal shield law to protect journalists who use anonymous sources and "whistleblowers" to uncover corporate scandals, political corruption and other societal ills that are the news media's duty to seek out and document.

The District of Columbia and thirty-one states already have shield laws in place. We are encouraged by Sen. Christopher Dodd's (D-Conn.) introduction of federal legislation that would prevent journalists like Jim Taricani from facing contempt of court rulings for protecting their sources. We strongly support the passage of a national shield law.

"If sources with crucial information can't be sure that reporters will protect them, they won't come forward, and cover-ups like the Enron scandal, the truth about tobacco marketing and addiction, or environmental contamination cases won't be known," said NAHJ President Verónica Villafañe, a television reporter for the San Jose Mercury News. "If this attack on freedom of the press is not challenged, this could very well be a turning point for the First Amendment, and it must be stopped now."

With his conviction last Thursday in Providence, Rhode Island, Taricani becomes the last of about 12 journalists held in contempt of court for not revealing their sources, some of them facing jail time pending appeals. In the high-profile cases relating to former nuclear physicist Wen Ho Lee and undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame, New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper head a list of several journalists convicted of the same charges. In Miller's case, a federal judge ordered her to disclose the identity of a source she had a conversation with despite the fact that she actually never wrote a story about it.

Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres is set to sentence Taricani to jail for six months on Dec. 9, a day after the Miller case goes before a federal appeals court. Taricani was held in contempt for refusing to disclose who provided him a videotape that shows an undercover FBI agent giving a bribe to a city hall official in Providence. The FBI sting led to the arrest and conviction of former Providence Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci Jr. on corruption charges.

The action of Judge Torres strikes a damaging blow to journalists who push to ensure that government and other influential societal institutions are not violating the public trust. In this environment of growing secrecy where so much more information is considered sensitive or classified, credible anonymous sources and whistleblowers must be encouraged to come forward to protect the public's interest and to keep a check on government, corporations and other institutions.

"That is much harder to do if a journalist can be threatened with jail time for not disclosing the source, for responsibly doing his or her job," said Iván Román, NAHJ's executive director. "A colleague's fear could also result in self censorship. In these times when the very nature and the conditions of our open society are being challenged from abroad and from within, the U.S. needs a vibrant and aggressive free press more than ever."

NAHJ supports Taricani in his sentencing hearing Dec. 9 and urges the federal appeals court hearing the Miller case next month to overturn that conviction and turn back this most recent trend that endangers freedom of the press.

Founded in 1984, the 2,300-member NAHJ is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. The mission of the association is to increase the number of Latinos working in our nation's newsrooms and improve news coverage of the country's Latino community.