Congress needs to pass federal shield law

Tag : wind sheild

The stars have aligned for a federal shield law for journalists.It's hardly a matter of controversy except by some in the Bushadministration.
The House approved a shield bill last fall, 398 to 21. The SenateJudiciary Committee approved its own shield bill, 15 to 2. All themajor party candidates support it, Hillary Rodham Clinton, BarackObama and, most recently, John McCain, though not withoutreservations.
McCain acknowledged that, improperly used, it could be a license todo harm, "but it's also a license to do good; to disclose injusticeand unlawfulness and inequities; and to encourage their swiftcorrection."
The Senate is making some last-minute changes to its bill, makingit somewhat weaker than the House version, but the important thingis to get it past the full Senate and let House and Senateconferees worry about squaring the differences.
Basically, the shield bill says that reporters may not be forced todisclose their sources except under very limited and compellingcircumstances.
At the last minute, Attorney General Michael Mukasey and HomelandSecurity Secretary Michael Chertoff said, without going into anyparticular detail, that a shield law would jeopardize nationalsecurity. The Bush administration has gone to that well too oftento be credible.
As we write, a federal judge is threatening former USA Todayreporter Toni Locy with financial ruin - fines of up to $5,000 aday that she must pay personally - unless she divulges her sourcesin stories she wrote five years ago, for which she no longer hasher notes and for which her testimony may not be needed in anycase.
The need for a federal shield law has been building for years; muchof the impetus dates to a 1972 Supreme Court case in which thejustices wrote, "News gathering is not without First Amendmentprotections." However, the court could not agree about the extentof those protections.
Thus, the issue has fallen to states. Currently, 31 states and theDistrict of Columbia have shield laws that protect newsgathers fromunjustified subpoenas.
While the proposal has the support of professional groups, such asthe Society of Professional Journalists, others fear such a lawwill enable Congress to decide who is a journalist.
Irwin Gratz, SPJ president in 2005, said in an article then thatdoesn't have to be the case, and the society is supportinginclusive language in the draft proposal creating a "functiontest."
If you are gathering news, you are covered - bloggers and otherInternet pundits as well as reporters for traditionalnews-gathering organizations.
It is significant to remember that journalists covering governmentactivities work as the eyes and the ears of the public, and in thebest examples, they look after the public's right to know. They arenot there to do unwitting legal legwork.
Pass the law. Please.