NORTH CAROLINA DAILY, REPORTERS WIN APPEALS

By: Staff Reports Court Dismisses Contempt Charges Against Two Reporters



A federal appeals court has thrown out contempt convictions against two
reporters at the Wilmington Morning Star, the North Carolina daily
reports.


The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the 1997 case that found
Cory Reiss and Kirsten B. Mitchell in contempt for not revealing sources and
for reporting data from sealed documents.


In 1997, Reiss and Mitchell provided news coverage on a lawsuit filed by
Wrightsboro residents against Conoco Inc., a Texas-based oil company, for
water contamination in North Carolina. When Reiss reported that a
confidential settlement had been made for $34 million based on two
anonymous sources, U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt asked the reporter to
reveal his sources.


Judge Britt earlier convicted Mitchell, who read the settlement in a court file,
since he claimed the settlement was a sealed document. The appeals court
found that Britt's ruling did not comply with court rules that require public
notice before documents are sealed.


The appeals court dismissed the newspaper's and Mitchell's conviction and the
$600,000 in fines. Reiss' charges were dropped in 1997, but he was threatened
with jail unless he revealed his sources.





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Staff Reports





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