New York Times Reporter Judith Miller Free From Jail

The New York Times reports Times Reporter Free From Jail; She Will Testify (free registration required).

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - Judith Miller, the reporter for The New York Times who has been jailed since July 6 for refusing to testify in the C.I.A. leak case, was released Thursday from a Virginia detention center after she and her lawyers reached an agreement with a federal prosecutor in which she would testify before a grand jury investigating the case, the publisher and the executive editor of the paper said.

Ms. Miller was freed after spending more than 12 weeks in jail, during which she refused to cooperate with the inquiry. Her decision to testify was made after she had obtained what she described as a waiver offered "voluntarily and personally" by a source who said she was no longer bound by any pledge of confidentiality she had made to him. Ms. Miller said the source had made clear that he genuinely wanted her to testify.

That source was I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, according to people who have been officially briefed on the case. Ms. Miller met with Mr. Libby on July 8, 2003, and talked with him by telephone later that week, they said.

I believe that reporters should be entitled to keep their sources confidential. I believe that adds to a free and democratic society where an individual without fear of retribution can bring the media's attention to a subject that deserves further scrutiny. Moreover, I believe a free and democratic society that allows its media to protect its sources and to highlight important subjects serves as a role model for those countries that do not enjoy our liberties. Said differently, by placing restrictions on our media and not allowing it to protect its sources, then we have diminished our argument for encouraging other less democratic countries to allow more freedom for their media.

Perhaps with weblogs and Internet, this will become less of an issue in the future. Even so, I believe that the media ought to be allowed to protect its sources.