Morning Journal — OUR VIEW: Congress should adopt a federal shield law to help protect free press

• By: ASNE staff
• On: 07/31/2008 10:19:27
• In: Shield law editorials

The Morning Journal, Lorain, Ohio
July 28, 2008

Along with informing the public about the news of the day, another vital role of the news media in American history has been that of the public's watchdog.

Reporters protect taxpayer money, civil liberties, human rights and the character of our government by exposing corruption, mismanagement, theft, misspending and other abuses of trust placed in government.

In order to dig out evidence of hidden wrongdoing and bring it to light, reporters need to rely, in part, on sources who have inside knowledge, without identifying those sources. Identification could alert the perpetrators who could then cover their tracks, and retaliate against the confidential source.

Society has recognized the value of protecting reporter-source confidentiality to the point that 49 of 50 states have shield laws or case law that protect reporters from having to reveal the names of their confidential sources.

But there is no federal shield law, and there should be.

Congress right now is considering a federal a shield law, and a vote is expected as soon as today in the U.S. Senate on a proposed law that has the backing of major national journalism organizations.

The consequences of having no federal shield law protection were seen dramatically in 2005, when reporter Judith Miller, formerly of the New York Times, refused a prosecutor's demand that she name the source who had told her that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent.

Miller was jailed in an effort to coerce her to testify. She spent 85 days behind bars to protect the name of her source, and she was freed only after her source released her from her confidentiality obligation. She then testified before a grand jury. That source was Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Last Thursday, the AFP news agency reported, Miller urged Congress to enact a federal shield law. Speaking to the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong, Miller said, “No country that calls itself free should jail journalists for doing their job.”

We agree with Miller wholeheartedly, and urge Congress to adopt a federal shield law. We especially urge Ohio's senators, George Voinovich and Sherrod Brown, to vote in favor of the federal shield law.

Congress must put an end to the threat of jail or ruinous fines against reporters who are protecting their sources in doing the job of a free press under the First Amendment.