Scathing attack on 'N.Y. Times’

Press, 30 August 1978, Page 9

Scathing attack on ' N.Y. Times’

NZPA-Reuter Hackensack (New Jersey) A New Jersey judge has denounced the “New York Times” and continued the newspaper’s $5OOO-a-day contempt»of-court fine. The state courts have been trying to gain access to notes and files from the paper’s investigation of a murder case. A “New York Times” reporter, Myron Farber, has been in jail since August 4 for refusing to turn over his notes on the case. Lawyers for Mario Jascalevich, a doctor, say the notes are essential for his defence on murder charges. The case is an important test of the right of newspapers to protect sources who give them information in confidence. Judge Theodore Trautwein, after examining a dossier , surrendered by the newspaper 10 days ago, said this week that the paper’s files had clearly been sanitised before the dossier was compiled. The newspaper has said that the files contain all ' the undisclosed information i it has on the matter. “The files of the Times’ , were clearly and unequivo- ‘ cably sanitised,” Judge Trautwein said. “I don’t know whether there was a break-in or w’ho did it, but it lies at the feet of the ‘New York Times’.” The judge said it defied reason to believe the useless documents surrendered by the “Times” were, as the paper insisted, all that the “Times” possessed.

He said he would continue the daily fine until the newspaper ordered its imprisoned reporter, Farber, to turn over his notes. In New York, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, publisher of the ‘Times,” said: “The unfounded attack on the integrity of the ‘New York Times’ is a graphic example of the appalling state of justice with which the Times’ has been confronted since the Jascalevich trial began. “Judge Trautwein has now added gratuitous insult to decisions we firmly believe will be reversed in the appeal process,” the publisher said.