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New York (pts030/07.07.2005/13:25) - In a decision that shocks the media world, New York Times http://www.nyt.com journalist Judith Miller has been sentenced to four months' jail for refusing to reveal a source in an investigation related to an undercover CIA agent's identity.
The case has been running since July 2003, when the identity of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame, was leaked. Ms Plame's husband, the former ambassador Joseph Wilson, had gone on a CIA-sponsored trip to investigate whether Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Niger.
After returning, Mr Wilson accused the Bush administration of misleading the public in its case for going to war in a an article in the New York Times.
Although Miller did not write about the event, simply made some phone calls regarding the source, she has been held in contempt for refusing to cooperate.
In a statement to the court shortly before she was jailed Miller read: "If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality, then journalists cannot function, and there cannot be a free press. The right of civil disobedience is based on personal conscience; it is fundamental to our system and it is honoured throughout our history."
Miller's colleague, Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, avoided sentencing when he agreed to testify.
New York Times editor, Bill Keller, said of his peer that she had made a "brave and principled choice".
"Judy Miller made a commitment to her source and she's standing by it," he said. "This is a chilling conclusion to an utterly confounding case."
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