Reporter fined for not revealing sources

Under the court order, Toni Locy will have to pay USD 500 a day for a week, USD 1000 per day for the second week and USD 5000 a day after that until she reveals the names of dozens of sources she used in her stories.

The judge also ordered that she pay the fine from her pocket and neither her former employer nor anyone can help her.

One of the lawyers representing Locy was quoted as saying the fines are "unprecedented." Les Machado said the defence will ask the appeals court to postpone the payments pending appeal of the contempt order by US District Judge Reggie Walton.

Locy now teaches journalism at West Virginia University, where she earns USD 75,000 a year. If Locy held out for three weeks, she would owe USD 45,500, or about 60 per cent of her salary.

"I can't pay it," Locy, 48 years old, told media. "The fines will just accrue. That's it. I don't have that kind of money." Machado said it was unclear what Walton might do if his client cannot pay the fines, though one option could be to order Locy to prison. "This whole thing is unprecedented," he said.

Locy is one of six reporters Hatfill subpoenaed to disclose government sources who named him as a possible suspect in the anthrax attacks. The poison was mailed to several East Coast locations, killing five people.

Lawyers for the former scientist were quoted by USA Today that they need the sources to pursue his lawsuit against the government. Four of the reporters obtained waivers from their sources, allowing them to identify the officials. Walton is considering a contempt order against a fifth reporter.

Locy says that as a USA Today reporter she spoke to a number of officials regarding the anthrax case on the condition that she would not name them, but cannot remember which sources linked Hatfill to the government's inquiry.

Hatfill, who was publicly identified in 2002 by then-attorney general John Ashcroft as a "person of interest" in the attacks, has never been charged. His lawsuit claims irreparable damage to his reputation.

In his ruling, Walton said he "appreciates the importance of the media's ability to freely report the news in a democratic society like the United States. But just as the First Amendment is a fundamental component of the American system, so too is the rule of law."

USA Today Editor Ken Paulson called Walton's decision "deeply disappointing."

"By all accounts, Toni Locy reported accurately what government officials told her about one of the most important criminal investigations in modern history, yet she faces the real prospect of financial ruin," Paulson said.