Knoxville News Sentinel – Shield law keeps press, U.S. free

• By: ASNE staff
• On: 10/23/2007 17:02:52
• In: Shield law editorials

The Knoxville News Sentinel, Knoxville, Tenn.
Oct. 19, 2007

The U.S. House of Representatives got it right: It voted Tuesday to back the right of journalists to protect the confidentiality of their sources in most federal court cases, saying that right is crucial to a free and effective press.

The White House, however, threatened to veto the legislation, warning that the media shield bill would encourage leaks of classified information.

Well, let's see. We can think of one pretty spectacular case in which information the president considered classified was leaked to the press.

In 1972, then-President Nixon tried to cover up a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at an office-apartment complex and hotel in Washington, D.C.

That complex was called the Watergate, and today the series of scandals touched off by the break-in is referred to as Watergate.

Bob Woodward, one of the journalists who reported on that scandal, spoke at the University of Tennessee Tuesday. In his speech, he emphasized that secrecy in government should be the most feared of all things that could destroy the United States.

Woodward and Carl Bernstein are known for their roles in exposing the scandal, and The Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize for their work. Woodward, now an assistant editor for the Post, said all the presidencies on which he's reported have been flawed by their efforts for too much secrecy.

Other more recent cases of government leaks come to mind: the prison abuses at Abu Ghraib, the shoddy treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the contracting abuses in Iraq and the CIA's secret, extraterritorial prisons. It is the use of confidential sources that allowed these issues to come to light.

The shield bill passed by the House does nothing that 49 states and the guidelines of the Justice Department don't do already.

Yet the White House argues that the protections "could severely frustrate - and in some cases completely eviscerate - the ability to investigate acts of terrorism or threats to national security."

Oh, come on. "National security" is the Bush administration's all-purpose response to any outside scrutiny of its workings.

In fact, the bill lays out exceptions where a judge can require a reporter to testify - preventing acts of terrorism, apprehending terrorists, significant harm to national security and threat of imminent death or serious injury - just not on a prosecutor's say-so.

A vigilant press, free from fear of reprisal, is vital to a democracy as a watchdog on government wrongdoing and incompetence.

That's why the first act of autocratic governments like those in Iran, Venezuela, China and increasingly Russia is to crack down on the press.

The House understands this. That body passed the bill by a veto-proof vote of 398 to 21. Now it's up to the Senate.

The Senate Judiciary committee already has approved a similar measure, and the full Senate should not allow its leisurely pace and crowded calendar to imperil the bill.

The House has shown already that the bill is controversial only in the eyes of the Bush administration.

A good many people love to hate - and freely criticize - the press. But let's not forget the important part a free press plays in a government of the people, for the people and by the people.