Newspaper Holds Back on Articles Based on Leaked Information

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“Take away a reporter’s ability to protect a tipster’s anonymity and you deny the public vital information,” Cleveland Plain Dealer Executive Editor Doug Clifton wrote in a column in which he said his paper had recently withheld two investigative reports because they relied heavily on documents that had been illegally leaked to the paper. He said the newspaper’s attorneys advised against publication because it could lead to penalties against the paper and jailing of the reporters. He and the reporters, he said, were willing to accept the penalties; the paper could not. (7/12/05)