Roanoke Times — Editorial: Pass the federal shield law bill

• By: ASNE staff
• On: 10/09/2007 14:12:15
• In: Shield law editorials

A journalist must be able to promise a source anonymity without fear of federal subpoena.

Roanoke (Va.) Times
Oct. 9, 2007

Proposed legislation that would establish a federal shield law has enjoyed broad bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.

But the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007 appears headed for floor fights, even though companion versions of the legislation have been voted out of the House and Senate judiciary committees with wide support.

That support should not be allowed to wither away in the face of specious claims by opponents that such a law threatens national security.

Opponents -- including an administration with a penchant for operating in secrecy -- have called a federal shield law a potential hazard because it would protect people who call themselves journalists but, in fact, might be terrorists.

In a Washington Post commentary last week, a U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois wrote that "the bill does not protect people if the government proves they are acting on behalf of a foreign terrorist group or foreign power. But the bill also handcuffs investigators from taking the steps necessary to obtain that proof."

Not so. According to the Associated Press, the Senate version of the bill was sensibly amended to keep accused spies, agents of foreign countries and terrorists from claiming journalistic privileges. These would be individuals or entities designated as such by the State or Treasury departments.

The concern for harm to national security was duly noted, as it should have been, and reflected in the amendments. Continuing to couch opposition in terms of terrorist threat can only be seen as a scare tactic.

A federal shield law would extend to federal courts the confidential source protection already granted journalists in Washington, D.C., and a majority of states --Virginia shamefully not among them. That is what Southwest Virginia's Rep. Rick Boucher intended when he introduced the House version of the legislation earlier this year.

His colleagues must now recognize that setting a federal standard for protecting confidential sources and reporters is crucial to bringing breaches of public trust out of the shadows.