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by Jayne Lyun Stahl
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will be meeting this week to decide on the fate of the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007, HR 2102, SB 1267 which will guarantee immunity from prosecution to journalists who refuse to compromise the confidentiality of their sources in federal court proceedings. This is an essential piece of legislation, and one that must not get lost in the shuffle of breaking news, or the noose of government control over the press and the media will be allowed to tighten exponentially.
While 49 states now have shield laws which affirm that communications between reporters and their sources are as privileged as those of attorneys and their clients, this protection applies only to state, and local cases, not federal cases. (SPJ). Passage of this bill will prevent any federal prosecutor from bringing a journalist before a grand jury again, and coercing him, or her reveal the identity, or confidential information given him by his source. Passage of this bill will preclude any federal judge from holding in contempt, and issuing jail time, to a reporter who refuses to compromise the confidentiality of their source..
This legislation clearly stipulates that a journalist can only be forced to give up their source under rigorous, and extreme conditions such as if the court considers it necessary in order to "prevent imminent and actual harm to national security," or "imminent death or significant bodily harm."
What's more, anyone who is involved with the "gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting or publishing of news and information for dissemination to the public" will be considered a "journalist," and will be shielded from prosecution for refusing to comply with a federal court's demand for naming names, or supplying documents.too.
As you know, the past seven years has seen an unprecedented
number of freedom of information act requests. Clearly, the only way we
have been able to unearth what this administration has been up to has
been through the use of FOIA. Ironically, though, the Bush regime,
which has distinguished itself by its unparalled, and continuous
withholding of information, documents, testimony, in defiance of
congressional subpoenas, as well as its willful, and arrogant,
destruction of millions of White House e-mails, has hauled more
reporters before grand juries, and placed them behind bars for refusing
to violate their professional guidelines than any administration before
it.
At a time when a record number of journalists have been
killed, 75 last year alone making 2006 the deadliest year for
journalists on record, we must urge the Senate to pass this federal
shield law to not merely to empower reporters, and a free press, but to
empower us, to give us back the truth of our elections and our wars..
Nearly
one year ago to the day, half a world away, distinguished Russian
investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in her
elevator, after having written a scathing expose of torture, and
prisoner abuse by her government in Chechnya. We are no closer to
knowing who killed her today. And, right here in our own backyard,
celebrated Oakland Post editor, Chauncey Bailey, was brutally slain
only feet away from his office. It's alleged that his killing had to do
with his investigation of a black Muslim splinter group. It is
unacceptable in a free society, in any society free or otherwise, in
anything that remotely resembles "civilization," however uncivil, that
a reporter should be savagely sacrified in the name of perpetuating
silence, or a culture of blindness, one that thrives in secrecy and
denial.
That Richard Nixon would never have been forced to
resign, in disgrace, over Watergate had it not been for the tireless
work of two intrepid Washington Post reporters, Woodward and Bernstein,
is widely known. That these reporters would never have heard a peep
from anything Deep Throat were they not able to guarantee him, and
other sources, that their identities, and whatever information they
divulged, would be held in strictest confidence.
What better
way to pay tribute to a tragically murdered journalist, in Russia, than
by restoring dignity to a profession that has increasingly come under
fire, and under manipulation by a government not unlike that of
Vladimir Putin's, one that has repeated demonstrated how it would like
to stifle not merely dissent, but the free flow of information.
It's up to us to ensure that the legacy of the 43rd president of the
United States isn't death of the First Amendment by strangulation. He
took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not to dismember it. Contact
your Senators now, and urge them to provide a federal shield for those
who, i in the tradition of the Japanese reporter shot dead in Burma, in
their last moments on earth, are still taking photographs so that
generations from now, people will know what really happened there. Urge
your Senator to pass this legislation because the truth to you is that
important,
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