Corpus Christi Caller-Times — Passage of a shield law is in the public's interests

• By: ASNE staff
• On: 10/01/2007 16:34:52
• In: Shield law editorials

The Specter/Schumer amendment would protect journalists and national security

Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times
Sept. 25, 2007

In this age of information overload, sometimes it's difficult to separate real reporting from urban myth.

But some journalism breaks through the noise and makes history by uncovering a grave misdoing or shining light on the darkest corners of government. Americans may never have known about the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center or the Abu Ghraib prison scandal had reporters not aggressively pursued those stories and been willing to risk the use of confidential sources.

Anonymous sources can be risky business in some states for journalists who can be ordered to disclose the source when a prosecutor comes calling. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to consider this week a bill that would, in many cases, provide such protection.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., are offering a compromise, which would amend a federal shield law bill previously filed by Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. Shield law supporters are hopeful the compromise bill may finally pass, because it addresses some critics' concerns that the original bill might compromise homeland security.

Under the Specter-Schumer amendment, a confidential source's identity can be compelled if disclosure is necessary to prevent "a specific case of terrorism against the United States of significant harm to national security that outweighs the public interest in newsgathering and maintaining a free flow of information to citizens." Journalists also would have no privilege in situations where the journalist is an eyewitness to a crime and where someone's life or the prevention of bodily harm depends on the reporters' anonymous source information.

More than 40 reporters have been subpoenaed or questioned about their confidential sources over the past few years. Prosecutors and civil litigators are too often going first to reporters to determine the identity of a confidential source instead of treating journalists as a last resort.

Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have state shield laws, but no similar provision rests in federal law. This measure is even more important for journalists in Texas, one of the few states that does not offer state law protection for reporters.

More than 50 media organizations support the amended bill, as should lawmakers. Journalists prefer to have their sources on-the-record, but there are times when the public simply wouldn't be informed about an important issue if not for a confidential source. The Enron scandal and news of steroid abuse in Major League Baseball are now common knowledge in American civics because reporters provided confidentiality to sources.

If sources don't think reporters have protection, they will hesitate to come forward and public knowledge and discussion will diminish. The Senate Judiciary Committee should approve the bill, with the Specter-Schumer amendment, and resist any attempts to weaken the measure.