WHOA! WH Asks Sen. Schumer to Re-Introduce 'Media Shield Law' Bill [View all]

[bigtree]

_________________________

tweeted by, Steve Benen ?@stevebenen 3m
RT @charlie_savage: White House this morning asked Senator Schumer to reintroduce the media shield bill which died on Senate floor in 2010.


— The Obama administration sought on Wednesday to revive legislation that would provide greater protections to reporters from penalties for refusing to identify confidential sources, and that would enable journalists to ask a federal judge to quash subpoenas for their phone records, a White House official said.

The official said that President Obama’s Senate liaison, Ed Pagano, called Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who is a chief proponent of a so-called media shield law, on Wednesday morning and asked him to reintroduce a bill that he had pushed in 2009. The measure was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee but never received a floor vote . . .

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday defended the subpoena but also disclosed that he had recused himself last year from overseeing the investigation, and that his deputy, James M. Cole, was the official who signed off on obtaining the toll records — logs of calls sent and received — for several A.P. bureaus and reporters. Mr. Holder was set to testify on Wednesday afternoon before the House Judiciary Committee.

Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Mr. Schumer, said the senator would reintroduce the compromise version of the bill in the form that passed the Judiciary Committee.

read: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/us/politics/under-fire-white-house-pushes-to-revive-media-shield-bill.html?_r=0

_________________________

update: ACLU article

DOJ's AP Phone Logs Grab Highlights Renewed Need for Shield Law
By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office

____ The administration has asked Sen. Schumer to reintroduce the Free Flow of Information Act, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) just announced that he will do so in the House, and Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) introduced a similar bill today. The administration should certainly be commended for taking proactive steps to prevent this from happening again. That said, the administration can’t get in the way this time.The demand in 2009 for a broad exception for national security leaks cases delayed and effectively blocked the bill, and tempered enthusiasm among Democrats for the bill in the face of strong opposition by certain Republicans. The 2013 bill must protect against what happened here with the AP, and it’s not clear that the 2009 White House compromise would have done so.

Although the president's press secretary noted yesterday then-Senator Obama's support for a federal shield law to protect reporters from having to disclose their sources, he failed to mention how the White House deep-sixed a comprehensive shield bill back in 2009. That bill could have prevented the extraordinary Associated Press subpoena, which was disclosed this week.

Back in 2009, various stakeholders—including Republicans in the House, Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), and a broad coalition of free press and public interest groups—came together to support the Free Flow of Information Act. Although not perfect, the original bill contained express safeguards requiring the administration to exhaust all other means of obtaining the information sought and to tailor subpoenas narrowly, along with other safeguards to preserve source anonymity.

While initially backing the legislation, the administration abruptly reversed course in late 2009, demanding that the bill contain what amounted to an exemption for national security leak cases and severely limiting judicial discretion under the measure. The bill died and has yet to be resurrected.

If there ever were a time to resurrect the federal shield law, it is now . . .


read more: http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech-national-security/dojs-ap-phone-logs-grab-highlights-renewed-need-shield-law