Confidential sources

Attorney General nominee Eric Holder gave clues during Thursday’s confirmation hearing that he plans to veer away from the last eight years of Bush policy in its restrictiveness on press freedom issues.

Former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino has asked a judge in Michigan to hold Detroit Free Press reporter David Ashenfelter in contempt for refusing to reveal his confidential sources during a deposition last month.

After failing to persuade a federal judge of his First Amendment right to protect his confidential sources, Detroit Free Press reporter David Ashenfelter tried a new tactic Monday to keep their identities secret: He invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.

The saga continues over whether CBS has to turn over to the government footage of an interview with Marine Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich discussing his role in the killing of a group of Iraqi citizens in Haditha, Iraq.

In a decision issued Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces sent the case back to the military judge who had initially quashed the government’s subpoena, holding that the judge should have reviewed the tapes privately before making a decision.

On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. threw out the appeal and the underlying contempt order against former USA Today reporter Toni Locy for refusing to reveal sources related to the government’s investigation of former Army scientist Steven Hatfill.

A federal judge in Detroit has denied Free Press reporter David Ashenfelter’s request for a protective order that would prevent him from testifying in a civil case involving former U.S. prosecutor Richard Convertino, the newspaper said.

The Los Angeles Times is taking political heat this week from the McCain campaign for refusing to release a video it obtained through a confidential source, of Sen. Barack Obama at a dinner for a Palestinian-American professor.

A New Jersey appellate court reversed a lower court decision Friday that would have required an ex-New York Times reporter to name the confidential sources he used in a 2005 biography of

An Illinois newspaper is using the state shield law to fight a subpoena for the identities of some readers who commented anonymously on the paper’s Web site.

According to a Belleville News-Democrat report, the state attorney general wants the information for a grand jury hearing on a murder investigation.