Bill to protect journalists clears Senate panel
By David G. Savage
September 12, 2013, 9:38 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Journalists and bloggers who report news to the public will be protected from being forced to testify about their work under a media shield bill passed by a Senate committee Thursday ...
"We're closer than we've ever been before to passing a strong and tough media shield bill," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. "Thanks to important bipartisan compromises, we've put together a strong bill that balances the need for national security with that of a free press" ...
The bill got a boost in recent months from an odd confluence of events. An aggressive effort launched by the Obama administration to plug national security leaks appeared to backfire. The administration was sharply criticized for bringing an espionage charge against Snowden, a contract worker for the National Security Agency who exposed the surveillance of Americans' phone records and emails, and for secretly obtaining phone records from reporters for the Associated Press and Fox News.
When these incidents came to light, President Obama told the Justice Department to develop new guidelines to protect journalists, and he pledged strong support for the media shield bill that was pending in the Senate ...
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-shield-law-20130913,0,4553946.story
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