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NEWS RELEASE: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Vanessa Leggett released from jail after 168 days

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Jan. 04, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Lucy Dalglish, (703) 807-2100

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Author Vanessa Leggett was released early this morning from the Federal Detention Center in Houston after 168 days of incarceration on a civil contempt charge. She had been held in contempt of court in July for refusing to disclose confidential materials she gathered while researching and writing a book.

"We are very pleased that Vanessa has been released, but we're still dismayed that it ever had to come to a jail sentence," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The committee has filed briefs and sent letters to federal officials on her behalf during the time she was in jail.

"We're also still very concerned about any independent journalist who attempts to work on a similar project in the future," Dalglish said. "We greatly admire Vanessa's commitment to the important journalistic principle of protecting one's sources."

Leggett was released because the grand jury before which she was ordered to testify completed its term yesterday. Jailing for civil contempt, which is meant to coerce desired behavior rather than punish, must end when there is no longer a way for the witness to comply with the subpoena. Unfortunately, this means that Leggett's ordeal may not be over -- she could be subpoenaed at trial if prosecutors obtained an indictment in the underlying criminal case, or she could be called before another grand jury later.

"The Justice Department could have avoided this whole incident if it had recognized earlier that Vanessa Leggett is a journalist and was gathering news when she obtained the information sought by prosecutors," according to Gregg Leslie, Legal Defense Director for the Reporters Committee. "If Justice had followed its own guidelines for subpoenaing reporters, the broad, all-encompassing subpoena they served would never have been allowed."

The Attorney General's Guidelines for Subpoenaing Members of the News Media, in place since the Nixon Administration, require that news media subpoenas identify particular relevant information that cannot be obtained any other way. The guidelines do not define "journalist," however, and Justice decided not to apply them to a freelance author.

More information and documentation on this story can be found at the Reporters Committee's Web site at http://www.rcfp.org/leggett.html