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Newspaper refuses to utilize leaked documents in article

Sunday, July 10, 2005

On Saturday, Doug Clifton, editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, said that the newspaper is trying to find a way to publish two "profoundly important" news stories, without the use of documents he states were illegally leaked to staff reporters. On legal advice, the newspaper was withholding the stories out of fear that reporters might be jailed. Clifton did not further characterize the subject of the investigative stories.

"Basically, we have come by material leaked to us that would be problematical for the person who leaked it," Mr. Clifton said in a New York Times telephone interview. "The material was under seal or something along those lines."

A newspaper industry trade journal quoted Mr. Clifton saying, "The reporters say, 'Well, we're willing to go to jail, and I'm willing to go to jail if it gets laid on me,'" he said, "but the newspaper isn't willing to go to jail. That's what the lawyers have told us. So this is a TIME Inc. sort of situation," according to Editor & Publisher.

The TIME Inc. reporter Matt Cooper, who along with New York Times correspondent Judith Miller, both long held out against a contempt of court order to name their sources in the outing of Valerie Plame. Cooper agreed Wednesday to testify, but it is unclear if he has the consent of his source, and Miller was sentenced to jail for refusing to cooperate.

Although Time Inc. was not specifically pursued by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in the case, they agreed to release Cooper's reporting notes.

The Plain Dealer has the highest circulation in Ohio and was listed last year as the nation's 21st largest daily paper.

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  This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication.
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