By: E&P Staff The United States needs a federal shield law to protect freedom of the press and the public's right to know, The Miami Herald argues in an editorial published Tuesday.
The Herald said the need for the law is underscored by the flurry of subpoenas issued by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in his investigation of the disclosure that Valerie Plame worked as a covert agent for the Central Intelligence Agency.
Fitzgerald?s targeting of reporters is "an abuse of government power," the editorial says, because they "clearly" were not violating the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act. That law says persons who are not authorized to have access to classified information, such as reporters, are subject to prosecution only if they engage in a "pattern of activities" in an attempt to reveal covert agents.
Fitzgerald's targeting is "particularly abusive in the case of one of those reporters -- Judith Miller of The New York Times," the editorial states. "Ms. Miller did not even write anything concerning Ms. Plame. Both Ms. Miller and Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine have now been found in contempt of court for declining to disclose their sources."
The editorial notes that the Inter American Press Association -- which ends its 60th annual meeting in Antigua, Guatemala, today -- has called the Plame investigation "a serious risk to freedom of the press in the United States."
"The IAPA is right," the editorial says. "The solution may be for Congress to enact a federal shield law that protects reporters from having to testify about confidential sources. Surely, the Founders did not intend that the First Amendment remain an abstract ideal unprotected by legislation that enables reporters to perform their duties."
"In today's climate," the editorial concludes, "a shield law is needed more than ever."
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