iCitizenForum by Colonial Williamsburg

Federal Shield for Journalists

A United States Senate committee wants to stop the federal government from forcing journalists to reveal confidential sources. It has approved, and sent to the floor for a vote, a national shield law.

The measure would deny federal courts the power to jail for contempt journalists who refuse orders to identify sources they’ve promised to protect, or to turn over notes and out-takes—reporters like The New York Times’ Judith Miller, who went to jail rather than say who told her Valerie Plame was a CIA agent; and San Francisco free-lancer Josh Wolf who spent seven months behind bars for refusing to hand over tapes of a protest. Miller learned Plame’s identity from Dick Cheney-aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Though she wrote nothing about Plame, she spent 85 days in the lock up.

Patrick Fitzgerald, special prosecutor in the Miller case, said in a Washington Post op-ed piece that the proposed shield law could also protect pedophiles, terrorists and organized crime. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article… But the committee inserted a clause denying protection to such people as “agents of foreign powers.” The Post’s Walter Pincus says that provision could make vulnerable journalists from such organizations as Al Jazeera and the BBC—foreign, state-owned enterprises. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article…

The bill may not be perfect, but it is a step toward protecting journalists from federal arm twisting, a protection similar to one already extended by shield laws in force in many states.