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The US House of Representatives passed the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007 October 16, a bill that would provide the first federal shield law for people doing journalism -- including some bloggers. A companion bill cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee October 4. Pres. Bush and the Justice department oppose the bill and have promised a veto.
For bloggers, one significant aspect of the proposed law is that it defines a "covered person as:
"[A] person who, for financial gain or livelihood, is engaged in journalism and includes a supervisor, employer, parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of such covered person."
That definition could include freelancers and citizen journalists who work for pay.
The Society of Professional Journalists and other media organizations have been pressing for a federal shield law for decades. A applauding the passage of the House bill said, in part:
“Today’s vote in the House is a victory for a free press and for the American people as much as journalists,” SPJ President Clint Brewer said in reaction to the vote. “This law is in the interest of democracy. Journalists must be able to protect confidential sources in order to truly report on the operations of our government. This will allow journalists to do their jobs without fear of prosecution from the very federal government they are covering.”
Shield laws already exist in 32 states and the District of Columbia, but journalism advocates have been pressing for a federal law since a 1972 Supreme Court ruling determined that journalists could be constitutionally compelled to divulge information and soures to a grand jury.Under most existing state shield laws and legal precedents, prosecutors can be required to demonstrate that the information possessed by journalists is essential to solving a crime, and can't be obtained any other way. Opponents in the Bush administration insist that:
"The legislation would make it extremely difficult to prosecute cases involving leaks of classified information and would hamper efforts to investigate and prosecute other serious crimes."
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés repoorts on a recent meeting of the Author's Guild at which the importance of the Act was discussed:
"Our legal counsel, who are involved with both Federal and State legislatures, explained how President Bush’s Department of Justice has been pushing against this bill coming forward… but if said bill passed the House today (it did), it would then be debated in the Senate with good odds of passing. More so, because of solid bipartisan support it is likely it will overcome an expected veto from the Executive Branch.
"The reason we all have a fine horse in that race, one that needs to ‘be given his head,” that is, free to run full out without being held back by a ‘hard hand on the reins’… is that in the last year, 11 journalists were either sentenced to jail or publicly threatened with a jail sentence when they refused to reveal sources to whom they’d promised anonymity..."
One of those jailed journalists, Josh Wolf became a cause celebre for advocates of a federal shield law last year when he served a record jail term for refusing to turn over video outtakes from a 2005 demonstration. Wolf, who was not on a news organization's payroll at the time that he shot his footage, opposes the proposed law:
"When the bill was first introduced in May, it was not without its weaknesses, but it's broad definition of who was covered under the bill and its limited exceptions made for a robust bill that I could easily support.
"By August the bill had been amended to refine who would and wouldn't qualify as a journalist. The new language stated that only those who who derive "financial gain or livelihood" from their journalistic activity would be covered. Journalism students would no longer be covered, nor would many bloggers. It's important to note, that though these changes were finalized in August, as cpmaz reports, the revised bill wasn't posted online until October 10.
"Since then, two more amendments have been introduced that will further erode the bill. One introduced by Representative Boucher (VA) and Pence (IN) (sponsors of the original bill) adds that the journalist must depend on his craft for a "substantial portion of the person's livelihood or for substantial financial gain" (emphasis is mine)...."
Wolf was supported by SPJ and many prominent professional journalists in his battle to keep his tapes secret. SPJ spent $31,000 on Wolf's defense, helped him obtain top-knotch counsel, and gave him an award for journalistic courage.
While the debate continues, so
