Prometheus 6

I think a journalist shield law could be based on our constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Just my opinion...

Bill to Shield Journalists Gets Senate Panel Hearing
By LORNE MANLY

WASHINGTON, July 20 - The Senate Judiciary Committee gave a generally positive reception on Wednesday to proposed legislation that would protect journalists from having to divulge confidential sources in most cases. But a harshly worded dissent from the Justice Department, which called the bill "bad public policy" that would hamper its ability to enforce the law and fight terrorism, underscored the difficult road the legislation faces in becoming law.

The nearly two-and-a-half-hour hearing, held before a standing-room-only crowd, included testimony in favor of a shield law for the news media from nine elected representatives, lawyers and journalists, including Matthew Cooper, the Time magazine reporter who narrowly avoided going to jail after being swept up in a special prosecutor's investigation into the disclosure by administration officials of a C.I.A. operative's identity. Another reporter, Judith Miller of The New York Times, is in jail for refusing to reveal her confidential sources in the same investigation.

These high-profile cases have helped thrust the issue of reporters' use of confidential sources into the limelight. In cases where confidential sources are not involved, the proposed legislation would require that federal prosecutors and courts show that the information sought was critical to the case and could not be obtained elsewhere. The witnesses echoed one another on Wednesday, arguing that the shield law's purpose was not to bestow preferential treatment on journalists but to ensure that the public gets the information it needs to make informed decisions about the government.

"Compelling reporters to testify and, in particular, forcing them to reveal the identity of their confidential sources without extraordinary circumstances, hurts the public interest," said Senator Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana and the bill's Senate sponsor, in his testimony. "The result will be that many whistle-blowers will refuse to come forward and reporters will be unable to provide our constituents with information they have a right to know."