Catherine Herridge ordered to reveal the confidential source in her 2017 news! Know its implications!

Updated On March 18, 2024 | Published By: shahid | In controversy , Legal

Fox News Channel and their reporter, Catherine Herridge are at loggerheads with an American district court. A federal court judge has issued them notices to disclose the confidential source that revealed to them about the probe against a Chinese-American scientist. Read on to know the whole matter.

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Catherine Herridge and her confidential reporting

Catherine Herridge works as a correspondent for Fox News Channel. In 2017, she reported as a series about the ongoing investigation on a Chinese-American scientist, Yanping Chen. Since 2012, the FBI, the Justice Department, the Pentagon, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement were investigating whether Yanping has any ties with Chinese military and leaked any sensitive info to them.

The University of Management and Technology situated in Rosslyn, Va. has a campus in Beijing, China and partners with several universities around the world. Yanping started it and is its President. It is a U.S. taxpayer-funded school and around 20000 students enrolled for this program since it’s inception in 1998. There are more than 10000 graduates from this school.

Yanping’s husband is J.Davidson Frame and her daughter is Lele Wang. They came to the USA in 1987. Though Yanping had worked for the People’s Liberation Army of China, she did not disclose it on her immigration form. And now she is a naturalized citizen of the USA. The federal agencies are concerned whether any data of the army has been leaked to China.

Yanping’s lawsuit

Later, Yanping filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She alleged that the FBI improperly leaked information about their probe on her. It was a breach of the Privacy Act.

In order to prove her case and win it, Yanping also send subpoenas to Fox News Channel and the reporter Catherine. She wants to bring in the person who provided the information to the news outlet. By unmasking the source, she can prove her point that her privacy has been violated.

But both Fox News Channel and Catherine are against the subpoena. They do not want to depose before the federal court judge since they feel that journalists are protected by the First Amendment. They cannot be forced to disclose the name of their confidential source from whom they gathered the information. Moreover, the information was factual and not fake. They had all the proofs with them before they made the series for their channel. They had counter-checked every aspect of the revelation before making the breaking news.

What the federal judge said?

However, the federal judge, Christopher Cooper, of the US District Court for the District of Columbia had some different opinions. He issued a ruling that Catherine has to depose in the court. He said in his ruling:

“The Court recognizes both the vital importance of a free press and the critical role that confidential sources play in the work of investigative journalists like Herridge,”
“But applying the binding case law of this Circuit, the Court concludes that Chen’s need for the requested evidence overcomes Herridge’s qualified First Amendment privilege in this case.”

But this would set up a bad precedence. Freedom of Press would be lost and people would fear to give vital information to the press anonymously. This rare decision of the judge is alarming and would negatively impact US freedom of press.

Patrick Philbin represented Catherine and the channel in court. He was earlier the deputy White House counsel under Donald Trump. And Barack Obama had appointed Christopher to the bench.

Gabe Rottman, who is a director at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, states:

“Investigative journalism cannot function without credible assurances of confidentiality to sources,”
“While the Privacy Act provides essential protections for the public, using it to breach reporter-source confidentiality poses significant risks to a free press.”

Advocate Ted Boutrous agrees and feels that Christopher’s decision is wrong. The Protect Reporters from Exploitive State Spying Act or PRESS Act was reintroduced in June 2023 and calls for a proper legislation in this matter.

Short bio on Catherine Herridge

Catherine Herridge is an American correspondent working with Fox News channel. More bio…

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