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Aug. 16--SAN FRANCISCO -- Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters must disclose the confidential sources of leaked grand jury transcripts in the investigation of steroids use in professional sports, a judge ruled Tuesday.
In a case that is being watched closely by media organizations across the nation, San Francisco U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said decisions in prior federal cases do not permit reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams to claim protection for their sources under a journalists' shield law.
The decision paves the way for the jailing of Fainaru-Wada and Williams if they continue refusing to name their sources. After a hearing two weeks ago they said they were prepared to go to jail.
Subpoenas were issued to Fainaru-Wada and Williams last May, based on a series of articles in the Chronicle in 2004 concerning the federal government's investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative and the distribution of steroids to several prominent athletes, including San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds. The probe led to the indictments of lab officials.
Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein issued a statement Tuesday saying the newspaper would support its reporters' decision to remain silent.
"We will not comply with the government's effort (to force disclosure), which we believe is not in the best interests of an informed public," Bronstein said.
Eve Burton, general counsel of the newspaper's parent Hearst Corp., said an appeal would be filed.
Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, said the government would not comment on its next step because it relates to secret grand jury proceedings.
At a 2004 pretrial conference in the BALCO case, San Francisco U.S. District Judge Susan Illston sealed 2,000 pages of grand jury transcripts and made them subject to a protective order. Dissemination to the press was made punishable by contempt of court and other sanctions.
A few months later, though, news stories by Fainaru-Wada and Williams began quoting the grand jury testimony.
Illston asked the U.S. Department of Justice to look into the leaks, and Fainaru-Wada and Williams were subpoenaed.
In asking the court to quash the subpoenas the reporters submitted affidavits regarding the public value of their reporting from prominent journalists including Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post's Watergate reporter, as well as parents whose children committed suicide after taking steroids. Also submitted for White's consideration was recent legislation introduced in response to heightened public awareness of the dangers of steroids abuse.
More than two dozen media organizations filed a brief in support of the reporters, calling the subpoenas a direct threat to the watchdog role of the press in correcting wrongdoing.
The brief said that "a reporter's ability to speak to sources in confidence is vital to the free flow of information to the public."
On the other side of the case the government said the subpoenas were essential because there was no other way to discover the source of the leaks.
White said that although journalist shield laws are common in state justice systems, they do not exist in cases involving federal grand juries.
And even if a federal shield law did exist, the judge said, the government's need to learn who illegally leaked the transcripts to Fainaru-Wada and Williams would outweigh the reporters' need to live up to confidentiality promises made to whistle-blowers.
The subpoenaed information is central to finding out whether a leaker or leakers committed perjury, obstructed justice or violated rules that cloak grand jury proceedings in secrecy, White said.
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