Senator Christopher Dodd is my new hero. He is introducing legislation that will create national shield laws. What is a shield law, you ask? It’s a law that protects journalists from revealing confidential sources of information. Confidential sources have been a huge part of some great journalism, and they need protection.
Shield laws are currently a state-level law, with thirty-one states and the District of Columbia having shield laws to protect the media from disclosing sources in state cases. The problem comes when those cases are brought on the federal level (a trivial matter for a really pissed-off lawyer), then state laws don’t apply. Thanks to stories like this and this, among others, you can start to see there is a problem. Even moreso in this interconnected online world where online journalists probably aren’t covered by state laws.
Priest and penitent, doctor and patient, attorney and client, husband and wife: They all have privileges of some sort, why can’t a journalist and his sources?
Thanks to Barney and Al, two great journalists, for these links.