NOTES AT ISSUE

August 2001
		Who should benefit from the First Amendment's press protections? How far should freedom of the press protections extend? Two experts take your questions.

Forum introduction Are only professional journalists afforded some First Amendment freedoms? Can the government take Ms. Leggett's research without compensating her? Could Ms. Leggett have destroyed her notes? How do you read the Fifth Circuit's decision? What does the decision mean for journalists?     Online Special Media Watch Aug. 16, 2001 Should Vanessa Leggett have to turn over her research to a federal grand jury? Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the media.

On August 17, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request from freelance writer Vanessa Leggett that she be released from prison. Leggett has been in jail since July 20, when she was found in contempt of court for refusing to hand over notes and research materials she gathered during a four-year investigation of a well-known Houston murder case. Leggett says she is a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protection and shouldn't have to reveal her sources to investigators. "I made promises to people to ... keep what they told me confidential," Leggett said. "The people would never have given me that information if they had known or thought that the government would ever get their hands on it." Nonetheless, the appeals court ruled that the district court hearing the case "did not abuse its discretion in ordering Leggett incarcerated for contempt." "Even assuming that Leggett, a virtually unpublished freelance writer, operating without an employer or a contract for publication, qualifies as a journalist under the law, the journalist privilege is ineffectual against a grand jury subpoena, absent evidence of governmental harassment or oppression," the appeals court said. Leggett's attorneys say she will continue her fight and will decide soon whether to seek a rehearing by the entire Fifth Circuit or take her case directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. How far should the press's First Amendment protections extend? To whom should they extend? Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and former Reagan Justice Dept. official Bruce Fein respond to your questions.