Jim Taricani

Who is Jim Taricani?

Jim Taricani is a US-based reporter, who served a sentence of six months of home confinement for refusing a court order to divulge a source.

Taricani, an investigative reporter for WJAR television, an NBC affiliate in Cranston, Rhode Island, refused to reveal who leaked a surveillance tape to him. He was convicted of criminal contempt of court on November 18, 2004, and sentenced on December 9, 2004 to six months of home confinement.

The tape was used during a municipal corruption probe of then-Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr known as Operation Plunder Dome.

Since that time, he has lectured at journalism schools throughout the country and has worked with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to urge Congressional passage of a federal shield law for reporters.

Taricani is also the recipient of a heart transplant which he received in 1996. He is a volunteer spokesperson for the Rhode Island branch of the American Heart Association.