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Orlando Sentinel — A shield worth having

Our position: It's important that reporters be able to protect their confidential sources.

Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel
October 7, 2007

Who, besides the press, has anything to lose if reporters are regularly hauled into court and ordered to give up their confidential

Our position: It's important that reporters be able to protect their confidential sources.

Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel
October 7, 2007

Who, besides the press, has anything to lose if reporters are regularly hauled into court and ordered to give up their confidential sources? Every American does.

Threatening journalists with jail time for not revealing their contacts also threatens the free flow of information that holds governments and other powerful institutions accountable to the public. Confidential sources have blown open scandals from Watergate to Enron to Abu Ghraib.

While 49 states, including Florida, protect the confidentiality of reporters' sources in most cases, there is no such protection in federal courts. And federal prosecutors and private lawyers increasingly have been going after reporters for information. Insiders with knowledge of waste or corruption who fear retaliation for exposing it won't talk to reporters if their identities might be revealed.

Last week a Senate panel approved a bill to shield reporters from being compelled in federal courts to reveal their confidential sources. Senators wisely defied opposition from federal officials who claimed the bill would undermine law enforcement or national security. In fact, the bill allows for exceptions if courts determine that either objective would be thwarted by protecting a source's identity.

This summer a House panel also endorsed a bill to shield reporters. Now it's up to members in both chambers to work together to put this vital principle into law.

In the Senate, Florida Democrat Bill Nelson is a longtime advocate of a federal shield law for reporters. Florida Republican Mel Martinez needs to follow his lead.

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