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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — The company we keep

Journalists increasingly practice their craft under threat of federal subpoena. It's time to give prosecutors a brighter line to follow.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
May 5, 2007

It's a distinction that Burma, Cuba and North Korea - as well as the United States

Journalists increasingly practice their craft under threat of federal subpoena. It's time to give prosecutors a brighter line to follow.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
May 5, 2007

It's a distinction that Burma, Cuba and North Korea - as well as the United States - have in common. What is it?

If you guessed that each country had jailed journalists in recent years, you'd be right.

Clearly, this is not company that freedom-loving Americans ought to keep. But the facts show that journalists in the U.S. are increasingly under threat of federal subpoena. More than 30 have been subpoenaed or questioned about their confidential sources, notes or their work in recent years in federal court. Of 96 federal subpoenas served on reporters over the past 15 years, about half have been issued in the past three.

A New York Times reporter was jailed for 85 days after refusing to reveal a source for a story she never wrote. Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, who broke news of baseball's steroid scandal, were sentenced to prison last year. They avoided jail time only when their source came forward on his own.

We're not defending all of the actions of journalists who were targeted. But increasingly reckless intrusions on First Amendment freedoms should be alarming to anyone who values free and open discourse. Unless journalists can protect the anonymity of sources, those sources will never risk coming forward. And stories like the Watergate scandal and the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib will never be told.

Prosecutors need a brighter line to follow, and legislation introduced in both houses of Congress this week draws one.

The Free Flow of Information Act of 2007 would protect journalists from being forced to reveal sources unless a judge rules that prosecutors or attorneys have exhausted other sources of information and that the information is "essential" to an investigation. The privilege is limited, which means that in certain cases journalists could be compelled to testify. It is similar to legislation that died last year in the Republican-controlled Congress.

Exceptions include cases in which information would prevent "imminent and actual harm to national security" or prevent the imminent death of a person.

While the law targets journalists, everyone benefits from a robust and vigorous press, where whistle-blowers are empowered to expose wrongdoing. The bills have strong bipartisan support.

One of the House sponsors, Republican Mike Pence of Indiana, put it this way:

"As a conservative, I believe concentrations of power should be subject to great scrutiny. It is imperative we preserve the transparency and the integrity of the federal government, and the only way to do that is a free and independent press."

Now it's time to persuade the rest of the Congress - and President Bush - to give journalists this important tool to use in the best interest of all the nation's citizens.

This country will be judged by the company it keeps.

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