Ex-reporter involved in sources dispute to speak at FOIC meeting
March 13, 2008
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A former USA Today reporter held in contempt for not revealing her sources for stories about the 2001 anthrax attacks will give the keynote address at the annual meeting May 9-10 of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.
Toni Locy had been ordered by a federal judge to pay fines of up to $5,000 for each day she refuses to reveal her confidential sources, but a federal appeals court earlier this week blocked the order.
The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia means Locy will not have to pay the fines or face further sanctions, including possibly time in jail, while her lawyers fight the contempt ruling.
Locy has said she cannot recall which of her FBI and Justice Department sources provided her information for two stories about a government scientist who is now suing the government for dragging his name into the investigation.
Locy began her career at the former Pittsburgh Press. She also was a reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News, Boston Globe, Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and Associated Press. Her specialty was covering federal courts and law enforcement.
She left the AP in 2006 to attend the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she was awarded a master's degree last year in the studies of constitutional and criminal law. She now teaches journalism at West Virginia University.
On the Net: National Freedom of Information Coalition
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