A federal judge in Santa Ana, California, has backed a reporter's right not to reveal his sources. Judge Cormac Carney refused to order Washington Times journalist Bill Gertz to reveal the names of officials who leaked information to him for a 2006 story about a grand jury investigation into a scheme to send sensitive military technology to China.
The judge said: "Confidential sources are the lifeblood of a free press, independent of government control. The identity of these confidential news sources must be protected if our press freedoms, fundamental to the effective functioning of our democratic system, are to endure." (Via LA Times)
