'Chicago Tribune' Managing Editor Vows to Shield Reporter

By: Lesley Messer Chicago Tribune Managing Editor James O'Shea said Thursday that if reporter Colleen Mastony is subpoenaed in the murder trial of six hunters in Wisconsin, the paper will do everything in its power to shield her from testifying.

On Wednesday, a circuit court judge in Wisconsin ruled that the jailhouse communications Mastony had with Chai Soua Vang, a 36-year-old Hmong immigrant accused of murdering six deer hunters last November, would be admissible at trial.

Mastony interviewed Vang over the phone and Vang sent her two letters, all of which were monitored by prison authorities. The Tribune has not published an account based on the correspondence.

"We routinely fight and resist all efforts to have our reporters testify in a case, particularly if it involves their notes," O'Shea told E&P Thursday. "Journalists are under attack almost universally, so it's probably more important today to defend what we view is our obligation to sources."

O'Shea declined to comment on what the paper's response would be if a Judith Miller/Matthew Cooper situation were to arise, but he said this case differs in that Mastony's involvement did not constitute a breach of national security.

"This is our job -- to go get the story," O'Shea said. "Colleen was aggressively pursuing that one. We did not make any of this public and we wouldn't have put it in the record. We will resist any efforts to make Colleen and her notes the subject of this subpoena.?

The managing editor added that the Tribune filed an amicus brief in the Miller/Cooper case defending The New York Times and Time magazine, both of which had been fighting a judge's orders that compelled their journalists to testify in the case of a leaked CIA agent's identity.

Illinois is one of several states that have a shield law that offers journalists some protection from compelled testimony.

?There are other ways to get at the information than to subpoena the reporters,? O'Shea said, speaking of past efforts where the Tribune has been successful in shielding reporters from testimony. ?That's our policy as a newspaper, and that's not going to change.?

Steve Kohn, Vang's attorney, told the Associated Press that he expected Mastony to be on the witness lists for both the prosecution and the defense, although he was unsure whether or not she will be called to testify.

The trial is scheduled to start in September.