Fearing Legal Battle, Ohio Newspaper Holds Stories

The Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper, is holding two investigative stories based on leaked documents because they could result in the type of court showdown that led to a New York Times reporter being jailed, the paper’s editor said Friday.

The Plain Dealer is trying to find a way to publish the stories without relying on the documents, editor Doug Clifton said.

“It was documentation that would have been illegal to share, so there wasn’t any ambiguity about what we had,” Clifton said.

On Wednesday, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for contempt of court after refusing to testify about a confidential source.

A prosecutor wants information from Miller as part of an investigation of how the name of an undercover CIA officer was leaked to a columnist.

Clifton said the Plain Dealer had decided several weeks ago -- before Miller was imprisoned -- to withhold the stories because the leaked documents could result in subpoenas and court sanctions, including jail. The stories deal with local and state government.

Clifton wrote a column June 30 explaining to readers the importance of protecting sources, and how the public would suffer if reporters’ ability to gather news is compromised. He mentioned the potential consequences if the newspaper published the two investigative stories.

“I wanted the public to understand that this isn’t an abstraction, that this is a real issue,” he said Friday. “Things that are important for the public stand in jeopardy of not getting reported because of the state of the law.”

He said he has never withheld a story because of such concerns.

“The climate has always been different,” Clifton said. “Let’s face it: During the Watergate years with ‘Deep Throat,’ it was never even thought of. It wasn’t even a remote possibility that someone was going to get subpoenaed because of Deep Throat squealing. That has changed so dramatically in the last few years.”

The Plain Dealer, which is owned by Advance Publications Inc., has a circulation of about 370,000 weekdays and 480,000 on Sunday.