first amendment

The government will always cover up its mistakes if it operates in secret and that it was up to journalists to expose the truth…..Robert Schieffer, CBS News Reporter.

Blog Commentary by John Gatti
In Massachusetts, the 2008 Reporters Shield Law legislation has failed again to win passage. This will continue, in my view, unless the legislation is precise, comprehensive and not self serving for journalists. And that's unfortunate, because news reporters and their sources need the protection.

MORE ON SHIELD LAW

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas returned to his law-school alma mater on Oct. 17, 2007, to give a keynote address at a day-long seminar on new-media law and blogging. Introduced by the school's dean, Maureen O'Rourke.  (CLICK HERE TO LAUNCH AUDIO/VIDEO)  In the 36-minute talk and Q&A, Moulitsas recounted his surprise rise to Internet prominence, and described his view of why Daily Kos is an example of new media, which he said was made possible by a "dramatic failure" and "stranglehold" of the mainstream media, citing comments by CBS Evening News host Katie Couric during a September appearance at the National Press Club on The Kalb Report. 

A Knight Foundation survey of 15,000 U.S. high-school students and 800 of their teachers made public Oct. 17, 2006, recorded increased teaching of First Amendment issues over two years. The high-school students know more about the free speech/free press issues than reported in an initial, larger, $1-million, 2004 study entitled: "The Future of the First Amendment." But the Knight Foundation said the latest results also show students increasingly polarized about how they feel on First Amendment issues. There's a website with details of the findings by University of Connecticut researchers Dr.

Daily Kos political blogger Markos Moulitsas will keynote a day-long gathering in Boston on Friday, Oct. 26 that will explore topics such as the effect of the Internet on copyright, libel, politics and the role of citizen journalists. "New Media and the Marketplace of Ideas," will be held at Boston University and is sponsored by three units of the university plus the Boston law firm of Prince, Lobel, Glovsky & Tye.

The Internet is radically transforming the media and restructuring the marketplace of ideas, organizers of the event say. As a result: A wide range of challenging legal, business, and policy issues. Are blogs just another type of journalism, with all the rights of traditional media, or are they something different requiring greater controls? Do IP laws interfere with or facilitate new media? How should media businesses respond to the changing environment? Who will be gatekeepers for the new media?

Boston attorney Jeffrey A. Newman is part of a coalition of media organizations and individuals who are backing the first concerted effort in years to enact a "shield law" for Massachusetts reporters. In this essay, he explains why he -- and Gov. Deval Patrick -- support the measure.

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OPINION

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By Jeffrey A. Newman Esq.

Thirty-two states have laws that protect the confidential sources of journalists, based on the First Amendment’s admonition that no laws should be created that abridge the freedom of speech or the press. Recently, many reporters have been the subject of subpoenas for information about their confidential sources and this has resulted in the jailing of Judith Miller of The New York Times, James Taricani of Rhode Island, Venesa Leggett, an unpublished author in Texas spent 168 days in jail rather than turn over the names of her sources and Josh Wolf of San Francisco broke the record for the longest amount of time a reporter has spent in jail protecting his sources.

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VIEW TEXT (pdf) OF PROPOSED "Free Flow of Information Act"

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In Massachusetts, unlike many other states, we do not have any constitutionally based protections on the books or under “common-law”(judge made) that protect confidential sources . Last year, The Boston Globe was hit with a significant damages award in a libel lawsuit simply because it refused to name the confidential sources of it’s reporter Richard Knox. It is merely a matter of time before a Massachusetts reporter is ordered jailed for refusal to give up a confidential source. Our state lags behind almost all of the other states in this area and that should not be.

Journalists are not above the law but they must be able to remain independent so that they can maintain their role as neutral watchdogs and objective observers. Reporters should not be used as an arm of law enforcement or civil claimants and without some protections, confidential sources—who have information critical to the well being and safety of the public at large, will simply refuse to come forward.

In addition, as things presently stand in Massachusetts courts, the determination as to whether a journalist must reveal the names of confidential sources is based upon which judge is sitting. There is no consideration as to the effect that disclosure of the source will have on the press. To have such disparity in the treatment of issues so central to our community is not only unfair, it suggests that the system is inconsistent. This perception that the system does not work is a critical consideration when it comes to the need for a law that will give clear guidelines to our judges.

Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have shield laws. The Department of Justice imposes restrictions on federal agents and prosecutors who wish to subpoena journalists. In Dec. 2002 the appeals court of The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal decided that a qualified reporter’s privilege should be applied to protect war correspondents from being forced to provide evidence in prosecutions before the tribunal.

When reporters are being jailed and their organizations fined for refusal to disclose confidential sources, something is broken in the system. Massachusetts, do advanced in its educational, technical, medical and biotech industries lags significantly behind when it comes to freedoms of the press and the free flow of information. This should not be. Our Legislature should pass a well drafted shield law to right this imbalance.

ALSO SEE:

The arrest of a Connecticut political activist and photographer -- who says he was acting as a journalist -- along a gubernatorial inaugural parade route -- raises the question of what constitutes a journalist -- and journalism. Is someone with a history of political activism forever a police suspect as a potential "troublemaker" even when he behaves as a journalist might? ORGINAL LINK