Buffalo News – Pass federal shield law

• By: ASNE staff
• On: 10/30/2007 15:05:11
• In: Shield law editorials

House, Senate versions not perfect, but do protect public right to know

The Buffalo (N.Y.) News
Oct. 25, 2007

We've whacked Western New York Congressmen Thomas M. Reynolds and John R. "Randy" Kuhl Jr. pretty hard in recent weeks for their stubborn-in-the-face-of-facts position opposing the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. But when they're right, they're right.

Reynolds, R-Clarence, and Kuhl, R-Hammondsport, also deserve an "atta-politician" for their votes in support of the U.S. Free Flow of Information Act, better known as a federal shield law. That's the bill that would, if it becomes law, inhibit prosecutors and judges from going after reporters and their confidential sources of needed information just because someone in power was embarrassed.

The highly secretive nature of the current administration and the troubling increase in the number of reporters threatened with jail for keeping their promises to confidential sources demonstrate the need for a federal law - one that would mirror the protection offered by 45 states where either statutes or court rulings give journalists at least a limited shield against such fishing expeditions.

Protection isn't needed to get journalists off the hook. It's needed to protect a flow of information that the public needs to know in order to hold government and officeholders, elected or otherwise, accountable.

This is not a perfect bill. It has too broad exceptions. New York's state shield law is far better, both in the degree of protection it offers and in its limiting of protection to those working in a more clearly defined role of "legitimate" journalists, which should ease security concerns. But it does help, and has strong media industry backing for that reason. At present, the only federal shield is the weight of tradition - and the current administration is proof why that is not shield enough.

The total vote in the House was a veto-proof 398-21. A similar outcome is at least possible in the Senate, where the bill enjoys bipartisan support led by, among others, New York's Sen. Charles E. Schumer.

The bill also had the support of two Democrats from the Buffalo area, Reps. Brian Higgins and Louise M. Slaughter. But it must have been harder for Republicans Reynolds and Kuhl to vote for the bill because the administration, as it does any time unchecked executive power faces a limit, opposes it.

By standing up to the administration on the shield law, Kuhl and Reynolds have done exactly what we and others have urged them to do with SCHIP - put the good of the nation ahead of the demands of their party.