OJR: The Online Journalism Review

Online Journalism Discussion

Proposed federal shield law would protect bloggers

The Free Flow of Information Act bill has been introduced in the US House and Senate under bi-partisan sponsorship. The bill's definition of journalists would include bloggers.

Submitted by Kim Pearson
Posted: 2007-05-03
This week a bi-partisan group of Congressional lawmakers introduced a bill in both the Senate and the House that would create a federal shield law extending legal privileges to both paid employees of news organizations and bloggers who gather and distribute news. The Columbia Journalism Review has a good article has good background on a key sponsor of the House bill, Mike Pence, (R-Ind.) News organizations have lined up to endorse the bill.

One of the experts we talked to earlier this year held out little hope for the passage of such a law. What do you think? And do you think its expansive definition of a journalist is appropriate?

Responses:

From Robert Niles on May 4, 2007 at 11:08 AM

The First Amendment prohibition against federal law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, is, IMO, a right granted to the people and not to a select set of companies.

From that, if the courts and/or the legislature are going to grant journalists the right to be free from certain court obligations in the course of their reporting, that right must be applied to all people who report and publish.