House Approves Shield Law for Reporters

Wednesday April 1, 2009

The United States House of Representatives created a bill yesterday, which will protect reporters from being subpoenaed into courtrooms, to reveal their confidential sources. The so-called shield law will operate much like those in place for medical experts, who are held to doctor-patient confidentiality by the Hippocratic oath, or to clergymen, who often take incriminating confessions within their churches.

In many instances, reporters must make promises to their sources that their identities will remain confidential, to protect that person from incarceration or threat from other individuals or groups. Compromising this trust has always been a problematic issue for reporters. Now, they will only be forced to reveal the identities of their subjects if national security is deemed at risk or when imminent bodily harm is threatened. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va. had this to say about the bill, which he sponsored, along with Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind, “In many instances, the critical information which first alerts federal prosecutors to conduct a criminal proceeding is contained in a news story which could only have been reported upon with the assurance of anonymity to the news source.”

For more information about this new bill, talk to a local legal expert today!

Sources: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090331-721370.html