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Reporters face prison for BALCO investigation

Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters are awaiting a Federal Court decision, which will either send them to prison or give them a lighter punishment for refusing to testify about who leaked them secret grand jury testimony from Barry Bonds and other elite athletes, exposing their use of performance-enhancing drugs. The government is for an 18-month term. The reporters are seeking a "nominal monetary fine" and other punishment "short of full blown incarceration," including house arrest and weekend jailing, according to court documents.

The two reporters published a series of articles and a book based partly on transcripts of the testimony of Bonds, Jason Giambi and others before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a Burlingame-based nutritional supplement company exposed as a steroid ring two years ago. The reporters, Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, have said repeatedly they would go to jail rather than comply with the grand jury`s subpoena and reveal their source or sources.

Authorities want to charge whoever unlawfully leaked the transcripts, and told the court that the reporters are the only ones who know who did. The reporters say that their coverage of star athletes` grand jury testimony was a major factor in turning the BALCO case into a high-profile international debate on steroid use in sports. Revealing the sources would impede the progress in fighting the use of steroids, besides the implications it holds for all journalists` work.