THE ISSUE: Federal shield law

OUR OPINION: Qualified privilege protects role of press

We join the S.C. Press Association in praising S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster for his support of the Free Flow of Information Act, a federal shield law for reporters. This past week McMaster joined 41 other state attorneys general in signing a letter by the National Association of Attorneys General, urging Senate leaders to join the House of Representatives in passing the bill.

The Free Flow of Information Act would create a reporter’s privilege at the federal level, bringing federal law in line with the laws of South Carolina, 48 other states and the District of Columbia.

“South Carolina’s state shield law recognizes the crucial role of the First Amendment in our democracy, but our federal law is lacking,” said SCPA Executive Director Bill Rogers. “Recent events targeting specific journalists’ personal finances and liberty, with the intent of forcing them to serve as law enforcement resources, clearly show why this law is needed.”

The proposed legislation passed the House by a vote of 398-21, and in October 2007 cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 15-4. However, S. 2035 has not yet been brought to the Senate floor for a vote.

“By exposing confidences protected under state law to discovery in federal courts, the lack of a corresponding federal reporter’s privilege law frustrates the purposes of the state-recognized privileges and undercuts the benefit to the public that the states have sought to bestow through their shield laws,” the attorneys general wrote in their letter to Senate leaders.

Led by Attorneys General Douglas Gansler from Maryland and Rob McKenna from Washington, the letter was signed by attorneys general from the following states, and will be sent to Senate leaders on July 8 when Congress returns from summer recess: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.

Importantly, the legislation is not a free pass for the press. The bill provides a qualified privilege with exceptions for national security, personal safety and law enforcement reasons.

It is a critical that leaders from opposite sides of the political spectrum recognize that hauling journalists to jail or personally bankrupting them to reveal their confidential sources is not the American way. Now is the time for the Senate to act to approve a federal shield law.

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