Jackson Sun — Federal shield law is long overdue

• By: ASNE staff
• On: 08/23/2010 08:21:00
• In: Shield law editorials

The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun
August 19, 2010

For years we have urged Congress to "act quickly" to pass various attempts to enact a federal shield law to protect reporters and their informants from having to reveal confidential sources. Once again there is an opportunity to pass the Free Flow of Information Act. We urge the U.S. Senate, the final hurdle, to schedule an up-or-down vote on the merits of the legislation before the end of the year.

This legislation has been before Congress for six years. It passed the U.S. House unanimously in 2009. The Senate Judiciary Committee also passed its bill in 2009, but it has stalled in the full Senate.

The legislation has been fully vetted and has earned wide bipartisan support. It offers clear and consistent standards and safeguards for issues regarding national security, such as when the government is seeking information to prevent a terrorist attack. The act is fair and reasonable.

Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia have enacted shield laws, and they have worked well. But they don't protect newspaper, broadcast or online journalists covering federal issues. This lack of protection, and increasing litigation against journalists, endangers one of our most important First Amendment responsibilities, that of watchdog journalism.

In Tennessee, for example, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Milan Army Arsenal are federal government operations that affect the lives of millions of people. Sometimes, reporters must rely on confidential sources to get information regarding federal government operations. But each time they do, they face the possibility of government and law enforcement interference, prosecution and even jail time for protecting their sources.

Important national stories including Watergate, the safety of nuclear power facilities, fraud at Enron, soldier abuse at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Bush administration domestic spying program, Abu Ghraib prison atrocities and the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name relied on confidential sources.

It is important to note that the Free Flow of Information Act would not protect the identity of the informant behind the recent Afghanistan War documents released by Wikileaks, since clearly they involve issues of national security.

A federal shield law is long overdue. The Free Flow of Information Act would ensure the First Amendment rights and watchdog journalism responsibilities of the media and the public's right to know what its government is doing. A strong democracy depends on the free flow of information. The U.S. Senate can strengthen those rights by passing the Free Flow of information Act this year.