Cochran
WASHINGTON - Legislation aimed at protecting reporters from lawsuits demanding release of confidential news sources is expected to win approval this week from the Senate Judiciary Committee, a move that would mark an important milestone in a lengthy campaign by news orgs for the so-called federal shield law.
The committee is slated to meet Thursday to approve a measure that would allow judges in certain cases to quash subpoenas for information concerning confidential sources. The provision is among several recent changes to the bill (S. 448), known as the Free Flow of Information Act, that are endorsed by a coalition of journalism organizations.
Covered under the law would be individuals who are professional journalists, freelancers, student journalists and bloggers engaged in journalism. That expected provision modifies previous language that restricts coverage to individuals who earn their living as a salaried journalist or independent contractor for a news org.
Parties attempting to force reporters to disclose information about sources -- including the government -- would be required to show that the information is unavailable elsewhere and essential to their cases. Federal judges would then balance the desire to reveal a source against the public interest in newsgathering.
The public-interest balancing test would differ depending on whether the information sought pertains to a criminal or civil case, or involves a matter of national security. If the provisions are met in a criminal case, journalists would be required to demonstrate that revealing source materials would disserve the public interest. In a civil case, that balance test would be weighed in favor of the journalist.
The bill also requires that journalists receive notice of any subpoenas sent to Internet service providers or telephone companies seeking their account information and that the journalists be permitted to challenge those actions in court. This provision explicitly covers National Security Letters issued under the Patriot Act.
Such shield laws have been enacted by 39 states, but no such protection has ever been available at the federal level.
"Increasingly, reporters have been dragged into court by federal prosecutors and even in federal civil cases and told they have to choose between breaking their promises to their sources or going to jail or paying big fines," lamented Barbara Cochran, president emeritus of the Radio-Television Digital News Assn. (previously known as the Radio-Television News Directors Assn.).
A companion bill has previously been approved by the House (H.R. 985), but action in the Senate was stalled until earlier this month when the Obama administration endorsed S. 448. In a letter to the Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair officially withdrew several national security objections to the bill that were unacceptable to the bill's proponents.
The bill would apply only to federal courts and leaves intact state protections for journalists and their sources.
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