Background

Over the last few years, more than 40 reporters have been subpoenaed for the identities of confidential sources in nearly a dozen cases, with some actually going to jail. New York Times reporter Judith Miller was imprisoned from July to September last year for contempt of court for failing to comply with a court order to identify her source in stories that she wrote for the Times regarding the disclosure of the identity of former Central Intelligence Agency covert agent Valerie Plame Wilson. (Source: speaker.house.gov)

Debate

• The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is cautiously backing the shield bill introduced by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This bill does not provide an absolute privilege protecting reporters from being compelled to reveal their confidential sources, and does not recognize the need for a privilege for other, non-confidential news-gathering work product, both of which are important to a good shield law. However, the bill would give journalists a greater degree of protection in federal courts than they enjoy today, and any protection is helpful as reporters face inquiries and subpoenas from federal authorities at a rate that is almost unprecedented. It also clearly applies the privilege to journalists' records held by e-mail providers and phone companies, which is an improvement over the law in every federal circuit. (Source: RCFP.org)

• Many journalists believe that the First Amendment recognizes their role as independent watchdogs on the exercise of government power and therefore gives them the right to keep confidential sources secret will have to -- as they do now in the absence of a federal shield law -- be willing to engage in the civil disobedience of imprisonment to protect their sources and maintain their independence. (Source: RCFP.org)

Country Comparison

Recent Developments

• October 16th, 2007 - The House has just passed the Free Flow of Information Act, also known as the federal shield law. The bill passed by a vote of 398-21, a margin that would easily override the veto which the White House has promised (pdf).

Additional Information