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Erie Times-News — Federal shield law needed immediately

Erie (Pa.) Times-News
April 01, 2008

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton apparently doesn't care much for your right to know. Walton fined reporter Toni Locy up to $5,000 a day and ordered her to pay up to $45,000 of her own money for not disclosing anonymous sources fro

Erie (Pa.) Times-News
April 01, 2008

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton apparently doesn't care much for your right to know. Walton fined reporter Toni Locy up to $5,000 a day and ordered her to pay up to $45,000 of her own money for not disclosing anonymous sources from her articles about the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation of anthrax attacks in 2001.

Walton's hostile ruling underscores the urgent need for a federal shield law to protect reporters from identifying confidential sources. It's even worse that Walton won't allow Locy's newspaper to pay her fines.

Just think of the chilling effect Walton created. Whistle-blowers and alarmed government employees with information the public is entitled to know could balk at coming forward and talking with reporters if it's possible their names will be revealed, exposing them to possible reprisals.

Pennsylvania and 48 other states, plus the District of Columbia, have shield laws that protect reporters from being forced to reveal confidential sources. The U.S. House has already passed a shield bill that establishes reasonable rules that make clear exceptions when a reporter must reveal the names of sources, but the Senate has not brought it to a vote, despite approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Five people were killed in the anthrax attacks. Locy, writing for USAToday, reported that Steven J. Hatfill, an Army scientist, was identified by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft as a "person of interest" in the probe. Hatfill was never charged in the case, and he sued Ashcroft and the FBI, claiming the federal government illegally invaded his privacy. Hatfill's lawyers want Locy and other reporters to turn over the anonymous sources who identified Hatfill as the chief suspect.

Walton's action damages reporters' ability to do their jobs. Reporters, just as they did in the Watergate and the Enron scandals, need to be able to use anonymous sources. As it is, Locy is paying the price for the Senate's inaction.

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