Should a Reporter Reveal Confidential Sources?

This week's show featured the 18th Great Debate organized by Boston University's College of Communication. This year's question was "Should the Law Protect a Reporter from Having to Reveal Confidential Sources?"

Members of the team arguing for the affirmative included New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Robert A. Bertsche, a journalist turned lawyer who is a renowned defender of journalistic privilege, and BU student David Rini, a communications studies senior.

Reporter Judith Miller was held in contempt by a federal judge last October for refusing to name her sources to prosecutors investigating the disclosure of the identity of a covert C.I.A. agent. Miller, who faces up to 18 months in jail, gathered material for a story about the agent but never wrote it.

The team arguing the negative included attorney Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. Attorney who served as a special prosecutor and counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives; criminal law attorney Victoria Toensing, a former deputy assistant U.S. attorney general; and BU student Nick Barber, a broadcast journalism junior.