The Press: First-Amendment Foursome

Four Manhattan newsmen who refused to answer questions put by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee during its investigation of Communism in the press (TIME, Jan. 16) were indicted last week by a Washington grand jury for contempt of Congress. They are New York Timesmen Alden Whitman, 43, Robert Shelton, 30, Seymour Peck, 39, and ex-Daily News Reporter William A. Price, 41. All had invoked the First Amendment (freedom of the press) in either refusing to identify onetime Communist associates or refusing to answer questions about possible Communist affiliations. The Timesmen, said the Times, will keep their jobs "until there is a final disposition of the case." Price was fired by the New York Daily News when he refused to answer the committee's questions.