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Pastimes : Murder Mystery: Who Killed Yale Student Suzanne Jovin? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (881)	1/25/2001 9:38:36 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1397

Re: 1/25/01 - (YDN Editorial): James Van de Velde takes on the press THE NEWS' VIEW James Van de Velde takes on the press -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published 1/25/01 The two-year long saga that began when former Yale lecturer James Van de Velde was publically named a suspect in the murder of Suzanne Jovin '99 has sorely tested the media's standards and two universities' principles. This week, a handful of journalists and public relations officers who helped frame Van de Velde's public record in the last 25 months are facing down accusations of libel and defamation in cases that could have a chilling effect on the local media and how they gather information. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in New Haven Superior Court, lawyers for Van de Velde accuse communications staffers at Quinnipiac University, where Van de Velde was enrolled in a master's program in 1998, of defaming him by allegedly releasing the contents of a private letter to the New Haven Register terminating his enrollment after he became a suspect. The lawsuit also accuses a Quinnipiac officer of defamation for a quote attributed to her in the New York Times. In a second lawsuit, Van de Velde accuses The Hartford Courant, the state's largest newspaper, of libel for publishing "false, defamatory and malicious" information concerning his conduct with two local television reporters. The question at the heart of the suits is, of course, the law and whether it was broken in either case; but there is also the unique relationship between reporters and their sources, actual or alleged. Both lawsuits -- which refer to sources unnamed by Van de Velde's attorneys or the newspapers in the cases -- appear to be troubling attempts to smoke out the identities of confidential sources, a prospect that if carried out would impinge on a relationship vital to the operation of a free press. The lawsuit against Quinnipiac is particularly startling because it threatens to interpose a court between a local news reporter and protected sources while seeking compensation for the alleged destruction of a suspect's reputation. The public story of Van de Velde's last two years, meticulously chronicled in papers throughout Connecticut and the nation, raises serious and legitimate legal questions. A trial that attempts to reveal the identities of media sources in the case is likely to raise questions of equal gravity. yaledailynews.com