Catherine Herridge, an award-winning investigative journalist, was held in civil contempt of court by a federal judge on Thursday for refusing to reveal her source on a 2017 report for Fox News. Her co-author of the report condemned the shocking ruling in comments to Mediaite.

Herridge was ordered to pay $800 per day by the judge until she reveals her source for the 2017 story on Chinese American scientist Yanping Chen. But she won’t have to start paying now: the ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper is stayed for 30 days to allow for an appeal.

Pamela K. Browne, the co-author and lead producer of the 2017 story with Herridge and executive producer Cyd Upson, called the ruling a “line in the sand.”

“Otherwise investigative reporting is sadly nothing but weather, traffic, sports, and handouts from consulting and commercial entities like Fusion GPS, TDIP to their pets,” Browne said. “Original investigative journalism is under attack. It’s deeply disturbing.”

Browne, an award-winning journalist who served as a senior executive producer and director of long-form series and specials at Fox, left the network in December 2018. She was subpoenaed alongside Herridge and Upson in the Chen case and gave a sworn statement that said she did not know the identity of Herridge’s confidential source, according to U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The subpoena was later dropped.

“Holding a journalist in contempt for protecting a confidential source has a deeply chilling effect on journalism,” Fox News said in a statement. “FOX News Media remains committed to protecting the rights of a free press and freedom of speech and believes this decision should be appealed.”

Herridge’s attorney, Patrick Philbin, said in a statement: “We disagree with the district court’s decision, and to protect Ms. Herridge’s First Amendment rights, we intend to appeal.”

The 2017 piece for Fox News reported on a federal investigation into potential foreign military connections of Yanping Chen, a Chinese American scientist. The six-year investigation did not result in any charges against Chen. In 2018, Chen filed a lawsuit against the FBI, Department of Justice, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security, claiming her private information was breached under the Privacy Act when a source leaked it to Herridge.

Chen’s lawyer Andrew C. Phillips defended the ruling in a statement to Mediaite:

“It is important to understand that without the protections of the Privacy Act, federal law enforcement can exploit its expansive powers to invade an American citizen’s private life and then selectively leak documents to smear reputations or score political points. Such misconduct should not be without recourse just because a rogue government official happens to launder his or her wrongdoing via a journalist. Today’s ruling is an important one to ensure that government officials can be held to account for outrageous abuses of power.”

Jane E. Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota and press freedom advocate, said rulings like the one against Herridge have a “chilling effect on investigative journalism.”

“Journalists often need to promise sources confidentiality to persuade them to reveal information of legitimate public interest,” Kirtley said. “If a journalist can be forced to violate that promise, it undermines that journalist’s credibility with future sources, and makes sources reluctant to speak out.”

Ultimately Kirtley said it will come down to which is the “more compelling interest: the journalist’s right to protect sources” or “the litigant’s right to pursue a civil lawsuit against the government.”

She noted the Supreme Court has not yet recognized a First Amendment right for reporters to protect sources.

Herridge left Fox News for CBS News in 2019. She was let go by CBS earlier this year in a round of layoffs. CBS said in a statement it is “fully supportive of Catherine Herridge’s position in this case.”

“No journalist should be punished for maintaining a source’s confidentiality,” the network added. “This order finding her in contempt should be concerning to all Americans who value the role of the free press in our democracy and understand that reliance on confidential sources is critical to the mission of journalism.”

Marlow Stern, adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, agreed that the judge’s ruling for Herridge is “unconstitutional, un-American, and a staggering violation of press freedom.”

The post Catherine Herridge’s Co-Author on Fox News Report Condemns ‘Deeply Disturbing’ Contempt Ruling first appeared on Mediaite.

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