Senate Takes Pass on Shield Law – For Now

Despite broad bipartisan support from both Congressional houses, Senate leaders decided against taking the Free Flow of Information Act (S. 2035) to the Senate floor yesterday. According to Lucy Dalglish, executive director for Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the goal of this important bill is to “create a qualified federal shield law that restricts the federal government’s ability to subpoena journalists.”

Despite the procedural delay, Dalglish says the Free Flow Act is still alive. In the past nine months, the Senate Judiciary Committee and full House of Representatives have passed the measure. According to RCFP, a revised version of the bill could be brought to the floor in September.

For more, see www.rcfp.org.

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Attorney General Nominee Wouldn't Shield Journalists

Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey, a 66-year-old retired federal judge, has issued statements saying that he will not tolerate Executive Branch meddling in Justice Department affairs and he does not support the use of torture in the interrogation of terrorist suspects.

But he also indicated that he does not support the proposed shield law that would allow journalists to keep their sources confidential. Mukasey believes that it’s easier to correct procedures internally when necessary than to reverse legislation that’s “etched in stone,” and said he believes that the Justice Department’s procedures have been effective so far with regard to interrogations.

President Bush has threatened to veto the shield law bill, which passed overwhelmingly in the House this past week.

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House Says Yes to Shield Law

The Shield Law movement gained more momentum yesterday when the House of Representatives passed a federal shield bill by a vote of 398-21, according to Editor & Publisher (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003659071). The bill would preserve the identities of journalists' sources in many federal court cases. Its passage comes nearly two weeks after the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a similar version of its own shield bill.

The White House has warned it will veto the House bill because it thinks the law could harm national security through leaks of classified information, E&P reported.

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How the New Attorney General Might View FOIA

Betcha didn’t know that AG nominee Michael Mukasey used to write for United Press International. We imagine an AG who used to be a reporter wouldn’t be a bad thing these days. “Judge Mukasey is the first attorney general nominee in many years to have a firm grounding in the law of the press,” says Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “We’re optimistic that this will lead to a justice department that is more open to public scrutiny.”

Lucy should know: RCFP has just posted on its Web site an “Evaluation of the likely impact of Attorney General Nominee Michael Mukasey on Press Freedoms and the Public’s Right to Know.” The report goes into detail around Mukasey’s background and history as attorney and judge. Important issues are at stake, with FOIA reforms and reporter’s shield proposal in the balance. See the report by clicking here.

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Shield Law Shenanigans

The never-ending drive to protect confidential sources who provide information to reporters hit a suspicious snag in Texas. The Free Flow of Information Act was sent to the scrapheap in late May after a Texas State Senator raised a technical objection to its description in a bill analysis. It seems one passage of the description used a comma when a semicolon was called for. If passed, the Free Flow Act would have protected journalists from being compelled to testify about, disclose or produce confidential information in criminal cases, with certain exemptions.

Suggested reading:

Houston Chronicle, May 22, 2007

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