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Times-Tribune — FBI demonstrates need for shield
- By: ASNE staff
- On: 08/14/2008 11:38:45
- In: Shield law editorials
The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
August 13, 2008
The FBI has acknowledged and apologized for its acquisition of phone records for four journalists who work for The Washington Post and The New York Times. In the process, the agency demonstrated why senators finally should pas
The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
August 13, 2008
The FBI has acknowledged and apologized for its acquisition of phone records for four journalists who work for The Washington Post and The New York Times. In the process, the agency demonstrated why senators finally should pass a federal “shield” law providing legal protection for reporters in the course of news-gathering.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III apologized to executive editors at the two papers, and an agency spokesman said later that the data had been purged from agency files.
The agency declined to divulge why it obtained the records, however, which it acquired in 2004 through an emergency records demand from telephone providers. All four journalists worked in the Indonesian bureaus of their newspapers.
Ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy, called for Mr. Mueller to brief them on why the agency went after reporters’ records without following Justice Department protocols for doing so. The incident was discovered in the course of an investigation by the inspector general for the Department of Justice.
Most important, the senators said the FBI’s conduct illustrated why Congress finally should pass the sort of federal shield law for reporters that helps to facilitate news gathering in 49 states and the District of Columbia.
The shield bill, which has passed the House, would enable reporters to maintain the confidentiality of some sources, but it includes specific exceptions when national security is at issue. It has been stalled in the Senate after passing the House. Senators who care about the free flow of information in America should untrack this bill and pass it in this session.