WASHINGTON, March 24 (UPI) -- U.S. news outlets say if no law was broken, journalists should not be forced to reveal their sources on Valerie Plame's work for the CIA.
In a 40-page brief filed with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, a coalition of the nation's largest news organizations and journalists groups said a federal court should determine whether the disclosure of the undercover operative's name was a crime before prosecutors continue to press journalists for their confidential sources, The Washington Post said Thursday.
The friend-of-the-court filing argues there is "ample evidence" to show a crime may not have been committed in 2003 with the possible revealing of the Plame's role as an undercover operative for the clandestine intelligence agency by Bush administration officials.
The D.C. Circuit court ruled in February Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time should be jailed for contempt for refusing to name their sources to the grand jury investigating the matter.
Plame's role at the agency was first published by columnist Robert Novak and later by other news outlets.
