Reporter who refused to reveal sources during 2001 anthrax attacks
to speak at UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Freedom of the Press Award winner Toni Locy, who refused to reveal her sources for stories written about the 2001 anthrax attacks, will speak at the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication on Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 5:30 p.m. in Carroll Hall room 111.

Her free, public lecture, “Committing Journalism: Contempt for Reporters in Post-9/11 America,” is presented by the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy with support from Lincoln Financial Media.

Locy received the Freedom of the Press Award from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., in July 2008, for protecting her sources in the face of personal risk. Locy was fined $5,000 a day by a district court judge for refusing to reveal sources in her stories about the 2001 anthrax attacks. The fines were stayed while Locy’s appeal went through the courts.

Born in Washington, Pa., Locy graduated from West Virginia University's School of Journalism in 1981. After beginning her career at the former Pittsburgh Press, she was a reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News, Boston Globe, Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, USA Today and The Associated Press. Locy specialized in federal courts and law enforcement.

Editors at the Boston Globe nominated her for a Pulitzer Prize for a four-part series about the Boston Police Department's inability to solve serious crime. She was one of three reporters at The Washington Post who wrote the first published story about the investigation of President Clinton's relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Locy was a member of a national investigative team at U.S. News & World Report. At USA Today, she covered the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and their aftermath, including the Bush administration's policies regarding terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

While working as a reporter for the AP, Locy covered the U.S. Supreme Court and national legal issues. She left the AP in 2006 to attend the University of Pittsburgh's School of Law, where she earned a master's degree in the studies of constitutional and criminal law. She served as the Shott Chair of Journalism at West Virginia University from August 2007 to May 2008.

Locy is the Reynolds Professor of Legal Reporting at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va.