Federal Shield Law Passes House Vote
WASHINGTON, DC (October 16, 2007) - A federal media shield bill that will protect the confidentiality of journalists' sources in most federal court cases passed in the House this afternoon by a vote of 398-21, with 13 Representatives not voting and 176 Republicans joining nearly all Democrats in support of the bill. A favorable vote of 218 was required for it to pass the House. The measure had 71 cosponsors, including 45 Democrats and 26 Republicans.
The National Press Photographers Association was one of 50 media organizations calling for passage of the bill.
The Free Flow of Information Act, H.R. 2102, also known as the media shield law - which the Bush administration has threatened to veto - came up for discussion in the House this morning and was voted on this afternoon after debate in the House today. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a similar measure earlier this month.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) spoke on the House floor this afternoon urging support of the act. "Thomas Jefferson once wrote: 'Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.' Freedom of the press, protected by the First Amendment has been a cornerstone of our democracy-one that we cherish and promote around the world," Pelosi said.
"A free press keeps our nation informed and holds those of us in government accountable. It is critical to freedom of speech and expression in our country. Freedom of the press is fundamental to our democracy and is fundamental to our security ... Speaking truth to power is as vital to our democracy today as it has been throughout our history ... As we protect and defend our nation, we must now protect and defend the Constitution by enabling our press to be free, as our Founders envisioned. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation."
Today's House bill included a last minute amendment by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) which said that in its balancing test a court "may" consider the extent of harm that might be done to national security when it decides whether the federal shield law applies in a case.
Today's vote on the measure in the 110th session of Congress is the farthest any federal media shield law has advanced to date. More than 100 other attempts have been made to pass similar protections for journalists and their sources over the years, but those measures failed before making it to this stage. The last effort failed in 2005.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), a conservative who cosponsored the bill with Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) said he promoted the bill because he believes the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press. "It's not about protecting reporters, it's about protecting the public's right to know," he told the Associated Press.
Just before the House voted on the act this afternoon, statements of support from press organizations, publishers, editors, broadcast corporations, and the media coalition were presented to House members, including this statement from NPPA president Tony Overman:
“Joshua Wolf, a freelance photographer in California, spent 226 days in prison this year (longer than any other journalist in U.S. history) for his refusal to turn over his raw video of an incident involving the San Francisco police. He would have normally been protected by California’s strong shield law until prosecutors did an end-run around those protections by bringing the case in federal court. This long overdue measure will help provide the same protection for journalists in federal court as they have in almost every state court in the United States.”
The White House and the Justice Department have opposed a federal shield law to protect journalists' sources, saying that such a law could "completely eviscerate" the government's ability to fight terrorism in some cases.
Last week Pelosi told an audience gathered to hear her speak at the Associated Press Managing Editors annual conference that she would bring the media shield law to the floor for a vote before the end of this year, but very few expected the action would take place within days.
Whether by coincidence or not, this week is National Freedom of Speech Week in the United States, "a week long celebration of the rights, and challenges to those rights, of journalists and others under the First Amendment."
The need for a federal media shield law, long called for by journalists and press freedom supporters, became a matter of public discussion when former New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed last year for refusing to disclose her sources to a federal prosecutor who was investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. In that case reporters were subpoenaed to testify in an attempt to determine which government official in the Bush administration leaked the CIA agent's name.
The White House says a media shield law would make it difficult to prosecute cases involving leaks of classified information. While the bill protects journalists and their sources, reporters could still be forced to disclose information if a court decides that the information is needed to prevent acts of terrorism, or if conditions present a threat to national security.
Press advocates say that in some major stories, source confidentiality was crucial to reporting that changed the course of government policy, presidencies, and history such as Watergate, the Pentagon Papers case, press reports on Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, accounts of illegal CIA operations, whistle blowers reporting on unsafe labor and health conditions, and reports of the deplorable conditions at the U.S. Army's Walter Reed Medical Center where injured soldiers from the war in Iraq were housed in sub-standard facilities while waiting unreasonable times for treatment.
And under today's measure, and for the first time, online journalists will be protected by the bill providing they are engaged in "gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting, or publishing news or information that concerns local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public."
Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia have various statues that protect journalists from being forced to testify or disclose sources and information, according to the Society for Professional Journalists. Untnil this bill, no statutory protection currently exists for federal cases.
The major news organizations, broadcast networks, and press organizations all came together to support the media shield law, which still faces an uncertain future in the Senate.
"On behalf of the NPPA I was honored to have been part of the coalition led by Paul Boyd, Senior Vice President/Public Policy of the Newspaper Association of America," NPPA general legal counsel Mickey H. Osterreicher said tonight from Buffalo, NY. "He along with his staff and others worked tirelessly to ensure the passage of this bill in the House without it becoming diluted by an onslaught of speculative objections from the Department of Justice and proposed amendments from those opposed to a free and robust press in this country. I hope that the overwhelming vote approving this bill sends a strong message to the President not to act on his threatened veto."
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