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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Brant Houston, 573-882-2042

August 9, 2001

IRE PROTESTS JAILING OF FREELANCE JOURNALIST

IRE has sent a letter to U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft protesting the jailing of a Texas freelancer. She refused to turn over notes and other materials collected as she researched a book.

Text of letter:

August 9, 2001

John Ashcroft
U.S. Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington D.C. 20530-0001


Dear Mr. Ashcroft:
We are writing you to protest strongly the jailing of freelance journalist Vanessa Leggett on contempt of court charges in Houston, Texas. Leggett has declined to be used as a Justice Department weapon by turning over notes, tape recordings and other material collected during research for a book on a murder case.

We firmly believe that in a free and democratic society, journalists must have the right to protect the confidentiality of sources and unpublished information. To deny journalists that protection threatens the independence of a free press guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Investigative Reporters & Editors is a professional organization of more than 4,000 journalists dedicated to upholding the high standards of journalism and to training journalists in the best techniques of newsgathering. We have been based at the journalism school of the University of Missouri for more than 20 years.

Many of our members have expressed grave concern over the jailing of Vanessa Leggett and we respectfully request that you support the effort to dissolve the contempt order and free Leggett, in consideration of the First Amendment and qualified privilege.


Sincerely,
Brant Houston
Executive Director