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The Justice Department fights PR battle over media shield bill
The Justice Department is mounting an aggressive offense against legislative attempts to create a federal law that would protect the identity of journalists’ confidential sources in most cases.
This comes as former USA Today reporter Toni Locy faces financial ruin because U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered her in contempt of court and to pay fines of up to $5,000 per day for refusing to reveal all of her law enforcement sources who fingered Steven J. Hatfill as a suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey strongly opposes a media shield bill sponsored by Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee last year. The House passed a similar measure by a wide margin last year.
The Justice Department has launched its own web page to undermine the growing pressure on Capitol Hill to bring the Senate measure to the floor. Locy’s plight has only generated more buzz for the bill, according to top Democratic and Republican aides. A vote could happen within a few weeks.
The Justice Department web site features testimony, letters and legal explanations for the opposition. The main thrust of the opposition is that the bill would endanger national security.
Now the American Civil Liberties Union is redoubling its effort to pass the bill.
The shield bill is on the verge of passage with strong bipartisan support in both chambers, said Caroline Fredrickson, legislative director of the ACLU’s Washington legislative office.
“The administration’s reliance on fear mongering to try to quash this admirable legislative effort is just one more example of an executive branch that cares more about protecting itself from embarrassment than preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution,” Fredrickson said.
“A free press has a duty to fulfill—informing the public about its government—and that principle resides at the very heart of a vibrant democracy,” Fredrickson said.
The need for a comprehensive federal reporters’ shield law has grown increasingly apparent in the last several years, Fredrickson said.
The administration has never been a fan of judicial oversight or enforcing the statutes it does not agree with, Fredrickson said.
“But when it comes to freedom of the press there is no middle ground,” Fredrickson said. “The Bill of Rights is not a starting point for negotiations. The public’s right to know is not up for debate and cannot be conditioned by the government.”
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April 9, 2008 6:50 AM | Link to this
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