Senate considers protecting reporters

updated 2:20 p.m. ET July 20, 2005

WASHINGTON - Under fire for presidential adviser Karl Rove's role in the leak of an undercover CIA agent's identity, the Bush administration on Wednesday labeled as "bad public policy" legislation to protect reporters from being jailed when they refuse to reveal their sources.

Deputy Attorney General James Comey canceled his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee just before a hearing on this issue was to commence Wednesday morning. In prepared remarks already submitted to the panel, Comey said the measure would "create serious impediments" to the Justice Department's ability "to effectively enforce the law and fight terrorism."

"The bill is bad public policy primarily because it would bar the government from obtaining information about media sources — even in the most urgent of circumstances affecting the public's health or safety or national security," Comey's prepared remarks said.

"If that is so," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, "then wouldn't we expect to see great threats to public safety in those states that have shield laws which are at least as protective as the shield laws that we propose?" Dodd is a consponsor of the Senate bill.

Journalist protective laws exist on state level
Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have such "shield" laws, but there is no set of standards that applies in federal courts.

Sen. Arlen Specter, the panel's chairman, said that Comey could not be present for the hearing because he needed to testify in the House at a hearing on the renewal of the terrorism-fighting Patriot Act.

The panel is considering a bill sponsored by Sen. Richard Lugar and Rep. Mike Pence, both Indiana Republicans, that would protect reporters from being imprisoned by federal courts.

Two weeks ago, a federal judge sent New York Times reporter Judith Miller to jail for refusing to divulge who told her that Valerie Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a CIA officer. Miller never actually wrote a story using the name of the formerly undercover CIA officer.

Pointing to broader implications, the special prosecutor in the Plame case, Patrick Fitzgerald, said earlier this month that "we can't have 50,000 journalists" making their own decisions about whether to reveal sources.

Sources would be identified in national security situations
The bill would stop short of giving reporters absolute immunity. In response to a request from Justice, the sponsors added an exception for cases where source identification is essential for protecting national security.

"It simply gives journalists certain rights and abilities to seek sources and report appropriate information without fear of intimidation or imprisonment, much as, in the public interest, we allow psychiatrists, clergy and social workers to maintain confidences," Pence said in prepared testimony.

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