Daily Herald — Press, public need shield law

• By: ASNE staff
• On: 05/08/2007 11:32:52
• In: Shield law editorials

Daily Herald, Provo, Utah
May 7, 2007

Congress is poised again to consider a bill offering journalists the ability to protect sources in some circumstances.

Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., have reintroduced a federal shield bill in the Senate, while Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., Howard Cobie, R-N.C., John Conyers, D-Mich., Mike Pence, R-Ind., and John Yarmuth, D-Ky., have reintroduced the House version. The bills would grant reporters a qualified privilege in protecting the identities of confidential sources in federal courts.

While 49 states (not including Utah) have some form of protection for reporters, either through statute or court rulings, no such protection exists on the federal level. The current bill was inspired by the 85-day imprisonment of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller in 2005 for refusing to tell a federal grand jury who revealed to her the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Miller was not the only journalist who has faced incarceration for protecting a source. San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams almost went to jail for not disclosing who leaked to them federal grand jury transcripts that showed professional athletes were using steroids. Blogger Josh Wolf spent more than 200 days in federal custody for refusing to turn over videotape of riots in San Francisco.

The measure died in the last Congress, but we hope that it will win support this time around. We also hope that Utah's congressional delegation will give the bipartisan measure its full support.

The measure does not, as some critics claim, give journalists an excuse to ignore their responsibilities as citizens but rather ensures that the public will have access to information that it needs about misdeeds in high places.

Some of the stories that have exposed wrongdoing -- Watergate, Iran-Contra, the United States' secret war in Cambodia, tobacco companies manipulating nicotine levels, Olympic bribery and fraud at Enron -- all came out because someone who knew the truth made sure it got into the media's hands.

A federal shield law would not hamper investigations. States that have shield laws in place seem to have no problems prosecuting criminals. It would only mean that prosecutors could not use news organizations as de facto investigators.

The proposed shield law does not give journalists an absolute privilege against testifying, as doctors, lawyers and spouses enjoy. There are some circumstances in which a reporter would have to testify. But the bill would require that prosecutors show that the information was necessary to the case and that there was no other means of obtaining the information.

It's time to get this common-sense measure on the books.