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Commentary By Judith Miller

Reporters—and the Public—Need a Federal Shield Law

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

I went to jail to protect my sources. Journalists shouldn’t have to face that risk.

In the summer of 2005, I went from being a prize-winning reporter at the New York Times to Inmate No. 45570083 at the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia.

My offense consisted in protecting my sources. I refused a subpoena to appear before a grand jury to discuss the source of a leak of national-security information. After spending almost three months in jail for civil contempt of court, I was freed after receiving my source’s permission to cooperate with the government’s investigation.

Continue reading the entire piece here at The Wall Street Journal

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Judith Miller is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a City Journal contributing editor, a best-selling author, and a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter formerly with The New York Times.