Ethics

Bloggers and Journalist Shield Laws

By Ed Brayton

Dianne Feinstein and Dick Durban are proposing a very bad amendment to a journalist shield law being considered in the Senate. The bill, SB 448, according to the Congressional Research Service:

Prohibits a federal entity from compelling a covered person (journalists and their employers, etc.) to testify or produce any document relating to protected information unless a court makes specified determinations by a preponderance of the evidence, including that all reasonable alternative sources have been exhausted, that the testimony or document sought is essential, and that nondisclosure would be contrary to the public interest, taking into account both the public interest in compelling disclosure and the public interest in gathering news and maintaining the free flow of information.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on December 08, 2009 (boomark / email).