Clarion-Ledger — Shield law: Congress should protect sources

• By: ASNE staff
• On: 10/16/2007 16:28:31
• In: Shield law editorials

The Clarion-Ledger
Oct. 15, 2007

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to be keeping her promise to promote a bill to protect journalists from revealing their confidential sources before federal juries, with a House vote possibly this week.

Speaking to newspaper editors at The Associated Press Managing Editors conference in Washington, D.C., Oct. 4, the Democrat from California pledged to promote the bill that has pitted news organizations against a secretive White House.

The legislation would shield reporters from being forced by federal prosecutors to reveal their sources, except in certain circumstances. Cases in which investigators are tracking acts of terrorism in the U.S. and other countries are exempted, for example. A similar bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee awaits a vote by the full Senate.

President Bush opposes the bill, citing national security issues. But it should be recalled that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald subpoenaed reporters to testify against former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was convicted of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI in a case that embarrassed the White House.

Bush commuted Libby's sentence.

The bill would limit the ability of politically motivated prosecutors or the Justice Department from ferreting out leaks which embarrass a president or his administration or reveal illegalities or improprieties in office.

Often, the only way a journalist can obtain information about waste, fraud and abuse in government is through confidential sources. Without that shield of confidentiality, often reliable sources would refuse to say anything that might jeopardize their jobs, information that could even be crucial to the health, safety and protection of the public. Government officials, as has been shown time and time again, have a penchant to make secret information that might prove embarrassing, or even illegal.

While journalists don't routinely or lightly ensure confidentiality, believing the best source is the openly verifiable source, without a legal protection for keeping some sources shielded, the public's right to the free flow of information that is the basis of this nation's democracy is compromised.

The public in opinion polls overwhelmingly supports the principle that journalists should be allowed to keep a news sources confidential. Congress should, too.