San Francisco Chronicle Reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru Wada were sentenced to 18-months in prison pending an appeal on Thursday September 21 for failing to reveal the source that leaked secret grand jury testimony in the BALCO steroid scandal that appeared in the book "Game of Shadows" and in numerous articles written by the two.

Interviewed just days before being sent to prison, Williams felt the government was in the wrong for forcing them to reveal their sources, believing his first amendment rights were being trampled on.

"We’re going to keep our word," said Williams. And hope that someone recognizes that there’s a first amendment issue at stake here "When you come after reporters and try and make them witnesses for the prosecution."

Williams also felt that it was up to the sources to reveal themselves and had no problem with having to go to jail if it meant keeping his word.

"What they do to us is up to the system and we’ll have to endure that. We just can’t give up our sources," said Williams. "That wasn’t the agreement that we had with our sources. It wasn’t that we’d give them up if things got rough; it was that we weren’t going to give them up at all. That’s for the sources to do. If they want to talk about their roles in helping us, they’re free to, but we’re not going to do that. That wasn’t the arrangement we had, the people weren’t going to be identified for publication and that was our agreement; we’re going to keep our word on that."

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