A veteran Hamilton Spectator reporter has been found guilty of contempt of court for refusing to divulge a source, but will not be jailed or fined.

Veteran Hamilton Spectator reporter Ken Peters had earlier asked the judge to jail him, rather than fine him, if punishment was to be given.

His paper should not pay for his decision to keep secret one of two sources of a leak of confidential documents, he had argued.

Superior Court Justice David Crane did order that legal costs to be paid, which the newspaper had said it would cover.

Because his conviction had been moved from criminal to civil court, Peters will not have a criminal record.

Peters' troubles arose from a recent court order compelling him to identify one of two people who attended a 1995 meeting. During the meeting he was handed confidential documents involving a Hamilton retirement home.

Because the retirement home is now suing city and regional health authorities, Peters was ordered to reveal his sources. He refused, and was subsequently charged with contempt of court.

At Tuesday's hearing, Peters said obeying the court would mean breaking a central tenet of his profession.

"You protect your confidential sources against all else," he said. "Not taking that position would be akin to resigning from my craft and a job I love."

Describing his choice as one between respecting the court, and staying true to his career, Peters said his decision was clear. But it was also his own.

"In my view, it would be like writing a resignation letter to the Spectator," Peters told the court. "If I was looked upon as giving up a confidential source, I would never be able to walk back into a newsroom."

Peters' case has turned him into a sort of poster boy for press freedom in Canada, drawing the support from the Canadian Daily Newspaper Association, the Canadian Association of Journalists and even meriting a mention at the recent Canadian Journalists for Free Expression annual conference in Toronto.

But the 45-year-old reporter told the court that his predicament is far from a campaign for press freedom.

Peters had been facing a charge criminal contempt that was dropped last Friday, after former city alderman Henry Merling admitted that he leaked the documents.