Poughkeepsie Journal – Reporters need solid shield law

• By: ASNE staff
• On: 11/14/2007 11:31:12
• In: Shield law editorials

Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal
Nov. 12, 2007

The "Free Flow of Information Act of 2007" is as good as it sounds, and U.S. senators should pass it, joining their House counterparts in giving the press the authority to carry out its watchdog role.

By a resounding 398-21 margin, the House has passed a measure clearly backing the right of reporters to protect the confidentiality of sources in most federal court cases.

This distinction is needed. In recent high-profile cases, prosecutors and judges have used oppressive tactics on journalists who have refused to divulge sources. New York Times reporter Judith Miller was tossed in jail for refusing to identify who gave her information about a leak involving a CIA agent. Miller landed in jail, even though the prosecutor in the case was able to ascertain the source of the leak through other means -- and even though Miller never published an article based on the information provided by the source.

While more than 30 states, including New York, have shield laws allowing journalists to protect confidential sources, there is no national standard. That gives too much leeway for federal prosecutors and the U.S. courts to do what they see fit to get reporters to talk.

Of course, reporters should be ordered to provide testimony under rare exceptions. But the onus should be on judges and prosecutors to show national security is at stake -- or that prosecutors have exhausted every other reasonable means to obtain the information...

... The Bush administration has threatened to veto, believing the media shield bill could encourage leaks of classified information. But the measure rightly acknowledges the role confidential sources play in a fair and free media and creates a "qualified privilege" for reporters to withhold information in many instances. Confidential sources were critical, for instance, in shedding light on the poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and in bringing to light many other issues that serve the public good.

Proper checks and balances are essential to a free society, and the federal government, in particular the executive branch, has given itself much broader powers since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Senate should approve the "Free Flow of Information Act" by a wide margin and then hammer out a veto-proof deal with the House of Representatives. The country -- founded in no small part on the rights of a free, robust press -- deserves nothing less.