| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
‘Jailbird Journalists’ Gather At Press Club
A dozen journalists from around the nation were behind the dais at the National Press Club, facing a capacity crowd on June 1. They were dressed in regular business attire, not orange prison jumpsuits; but they all had vivid memories of their days behind bars.
The symposium was the first-ever gathering of almost all living U.S. journalists who have been jailed or detained for refusing to reveal their sources to the government. The Western Center for Journalism was a sponsor for the event, along with professional journalist organizations and other groups whose orientation ranged from progressive to conservative. All were united in defense of freedom of the press and support of whistleblowers.
Some of the journalists had incurred the wrath of the federal government. Most had been jailed by state and local courts. It was a reminder that abusive government exists at all levels. However, 49 states (all except Wyoming) and the District of Columbia have “shield laws” that protect journalists to some degree, while there is no shield law protecting journalists from the federal government—the largest and most abusive level of government by far. A major goal of these journalists and the National Press Club is to campaign for a federal shield law.
Each year, hundreds of American governmental jurisdictions threaten journalists with jail if they refuse to disclose their confidential sources for their stories. These courageous journalists had refused—and paid for it with a trip to the pokey. From their round-table discussion, two themes became apparent.
First, jail is not fun. It would be stupid to risk it just to “advance your career,” as some detractors have claimed these journalists did. Instead, it claims time and money that cannot be recovered. Bradley Stone was a TV reporter in Detroit when he spent just two days in stir—“the first day in jail was pretty claustrophobic,” he remembers—but all the legal machinations “really cost me three years of my professional life—the worst three years of my life.” He admires Houston journalist Vanessa Leggett, also on the panel, who spent 168 days in jail for protecting her sources.
A second theme with the panel was how the situation has become much worse for journalists under the Obama administration. “I have covered every President from Reagan on, and Obama is by far the worst,” said moderator Brian Karem. “More journalists have been served subpoenas by the Obama administration than in all former presidencies combined,” said Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Judith Miller (85 days in jail), who reported for 28 years with The New York Times and is now a commentator for Fox News.
Who Does the First Amendment Protect?
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”
“Freedom of speech,” it is obvious, belongs to all citizens. “The press” is important enough to then be cited specifically, making it clear that our speech is protected both as an individual citizen and as a member of the press, if we are such.
The prevailing view among “the press” is that requiring a member of the press to disclose confidential sources is an “abridgement” of his or her freedom of speech. A federal employee in a sensitive position or some other source may decide not to disclose something that is embarrassing to the government unless the reporter promises confidentiality. Thus, the public is deprived of information it has a right to as citizens.
“The press” is singled out for recognition because of its importance in providing information to the citizens, but who is “the press”? Or, in today’s parlance, who is a “journalist”? Some state shield laws originally sought to protect only print journalists. Broadcast journalists—some of them on this panel—had to fight to extend protection to radio and TV journalists. But today, the Internet has drastically expanded the reality of who provides information to the public. Bloggers, personal or independent websites not affiliated with any institution, public spirited or just cranky individuals—a virtual citizen army is now reporting on what the government is doing. This is an especially important point for conservatives and libertarians, who have used the Internet to spread their insights and do end runs around the “gatekeepers” at established journalistic institutions who are hostile to their views.
Only one blogger, Josh Wolf, was on the National Press Club panel. He suggested, as have others, that the emphasis in a federal shield law should be not on who is a journalist, but on protecting anyone who is performing “the act of journalism”—that is, informing the public. That would be an improvement, but still promises endless court struggles as long as we think of “protected” or “covered” journalists and those who are not protected.
The feds, for their part, are aware of the public support for a federal shield law but are trying to restrict it to institutional journalists. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), for example, thinks bloggers and citizen journalists do not qualify for protection. Only “salaried agents” of institutions like the Washington Post or NBC News should qualify. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants to know your employer, salary, and frequency of publication before you would qualify. These insiders know that almost all major journalistic institutions are owned by six giant corporations, mega-corporations that can be pressured to force their journalist serfs to cooperate with the feds. Independent bloggers and citizen journalists are as hard to herd as feral cats.
Noted constitutional lawyer William J. Olson argues, on the other hand, that we should not draw up lists of “approved” and “unapproved” journalists. He recommends that we return to the concept enunciated in the Constitution and restated by Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1978, namely that “the First Amendment does not ‘belong’ to any definable category of persons or entities. It belongs to all who exercise its freedoms.”
David Franke was one of the founders of the conservative movement in the 1950s and ‘60s. He is the author of Safe Places, The Torture Doctor, America’s Right Turn and other books.
The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by WesternJournalism.com.
This post originally appeared on Western Journalism – Equipping You With The Truth
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/jailbird-journalists-gather-at-press-club/
