Reporter in contempt of court

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge held a reporter for Time magazine in contempt of court yesterday for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of a covert CIA officer.

In an order issued July 20 but not made public until yesterday, US District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled that Time's Matthew Cooper and ''Meet the Press" host Tim Russert were required to testify ''regarding alleged conversations they had with a specified executive branch official."

NBC News issued a statement saying Russert had been interviewed under oath by prosecutors Saturday under an agreement to avoid a protracted court fight. The interview concerned a July 2003 phone conversation Russert had with Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis ''Scooter" Libby.

But Time and Cooper did not agree to be interviewed and intend to appeal the judge's ruling, said Time managing editor Jim Kelly. If Time loses the appeals, Cooper could be jailed under Hogan's order until he agrees to appear and the magazine could be fined $1,000 a day.

''We are disappointed in the decision," Kelly said. ''We don't think a journalist should be required to give up a confidential source. We're going to appeal it as far as it goes."

Neal Shapiro, president of NBC News, said the network agreed that forcing reporters to testify about their sources is ''contrary to the First Amendment's guarantee of a free press." Shapiro said Russert answered ''only limited questions" about the conversation with Libby ''without revealing any information he learned in confidence."

Hogan denied the contentions by the two journalists that they were protected by the Constitution from having to testify.

''There have been no allegations whatsoever that this grand jury is acting in bad faith or with the purpose of harassing these two journalists," Hogan wrote in an 11-page ruling.

The investigation concerns the leak last summer to syndicated columnist Robert Novak of the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. Disclosure of an undercover official's identity can be a felony.

Plame's name appeared in Novak's column July 14 last year, about a week after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, published a newspaper opinion piece criticizing President Bush's assertion in his 2003 State of the Union address that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger.

Wilson had been sent by the CIA to Niger to check the allegation, and he concluded it was unfounded. Novak wrote that Plame had suggested her husband for the mission, which Plame and Wilson have denied.