Catherine Herridge was held in contempt of court last February by a district judge in Washington.CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
Toronto-born journalist Catherine Herridge has spent 37 years working for some of the biggest media outlets in the U.S., including broadcasters ABC, CBS and Fox. But she’s now become the central figure in a high-stakes legal battle over freedom of the press and whether journalists can be compelled to disclose confidential sources.
Ms. Herridge, 60, was held in contempt of court last February by a district judge in Washington for refusing to identify the source for a story about U.S. academic Yanping Chen and her alleged ties to the Chinese military.
She appealed and a panel of appellate court judges will begin hearing legal arguments on Monday in Washington. In the meantime, her fine has been stayed.
“I always say to people that if you do investigative reporting, if you don’t have a credible pledge of confidentiality to your sources, your investigative tool box is empty. You are out of business,” Ms. Herridge told a conference in London on Thursday hosted by the Centre for Investigative Journalism.
She added that the legal battle, which has been going on for six years, has taken a toll on her and her family. When she was subpoenaed and ordered to divulge the source, her teenage son said: “Mom, are you going to go to jail? Are we going to lose our house? Are we going to lose everything that you’ve ever worked for in your career?” she recalled.
In an interview, Ms. Herridge said she hoped that no other journalist will have to take on a similar fight.
“I’m in the last chapter of my career and if there’s one thing I can get across the finish line for this next generation of journalists it’s that they’re not going to have to run this intense gauntlet I have had to run in recent years,” she added. “It’s crippling professionally and personally.”
Her case is unique in that she is not being sued for defamation. Instead, Ms. Herridge is a witness in a civil suit that concerns a report she did for Fox News about Dr. Chen’s background.
Dr. Chen is a naturalized U.S. citizen who immigrated from China in 1987. She founded the University of Management and Technology, or UMT, in Arlington, Va., in 1998 and offered courses to U.S. soldiers.
The FBI began investigating Dr. Chen in 2010 over statements she made on her immigration application about her activities in China. FBI agents also raided her home and office and seized dozens of documents. She was never charged.
In 2017, Fox News ran a series of stories by Ms. Herridge alleging that Dr. Chen had concealed her membership in the Chinese military on her immigration form and that she may have used UMT to funnel information to the Chinese government.
Dr. Chen sued the FBI for violating the Privacy Act by leaking information from the seized documents to Ms. Herridge. After several years of trying to find the source, Dr. Chen subpoenaed Ms. Herridge in 2022 and demanded that she divulge her source. Ms. Herridge, who had left Fox for CBS in 2019, refused and Judge Christopher Cooper found her in contempt and imposed the fine.
“The court does not reach this result lightly. It recognizes the paramount importance of a free press in our society and the critical role that confidential sources play in the work of investigative journalists like Herridge,” Judge Cooper said in his ruling.
However, he said the court had to strike a balance between press freedom and Dr. Chen’s “need for the requested information to vindicate her rights under the Privacy Act.”
The judge dismissed representations from several prominent journalists and press freedom organizations who argued that the ruling would have a chilling effect on reporters. He said he could not disregard the balance struck in legal precedents “by placing a thumb on the scale in favour of confidentiality.” Cases requiring reporters to divulge confidential sources remained rare, he added, and there had not been any noticeable chilling effect.
Ms. Herridge’s lawyers have argued that Judge Cooper should have considered other factors that would offer reporters the same kind of legal protection that lawyers and doctors have when it comes to client confidentiality.
Almost every U.S. state has a shield law that protects journalists from divulging confidential sources but there is nothing similar at the federal level. Ms. Herridge is among those pushing for the U.S. Congress to adopt new legislation, called the Press Act, which would bring the federal government in line with the states.
The same time she was hit with the contempt order, Ms. Herridge was laid off from CBS. The network initially seized her reporting files, but Ms. Herridge managed to get the material back with help from the union that represents media professionals.
“This is a red line that must never be crossed by any employer in the future,” she told the conference.