GEORGE B. IRISH
Over the last few weeks, much of the public discussion about newspapers has centered on the need to reinvent the business model.
Absent from the discussion, but critical to our future, is the acknowledgement of the game-changing impact quality journalism can have on the communities they serve.
This week marks Sunshine Week, an event that serves as an important reminder of the fundamental role journalists play in protecting the public’s right to know.
The debates taking place over paid vs. free content in newspapers are worthy discussions – but we should also consider something even more critical to our future: a federal shield law.
If the law can not afford journalists the protections they need to deliver the kind of reporting that sheds light on our community, our elected officials and actions in the private sector, newspapers will no longer be able to deliver the public service and watchdog reporting our citizens not only deserve, but demand in a Democratic society.
For the past eight years, the government’s default setting was secrecy. I have recently seen some important indications that new laws and policy directives will allow reporters to work as our Constitution intends.
One of President Obama’s first acts was issuing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) memo, in which he instructed federal agencies to adopt a bias toward open information and to take steps toward making more information publicly accessible, including over the Internet.
Last month, leading policymakers in both the House and Senate re-introduced the “Free Flow of Information Act” (H.R. 985 / S. 448), which would set long-needed federal standards for compelling journalists to reveal confidential sources.
This shield law legislation, strongly supported by the Newspaper Association of America and 70 other members of a broad media coalition, will address an urgent and untenable situation. Reporters are losing their freedom and being threatened by fines merely for keeping their promise to protect their sources.
We’ve recently seen stunning reporting on Walter Reed Army Medical Center, government ineffectiveness in regulating toys, steroid use by professional athletes and corporate fraud in the financial industry. The depth of reporting in these and other newspaper stories is made possible in part because of reporters’ ability to grant their sources confidentiality.
Over the last four years, five journalists have been sentenced or jailed since 2001 for refusing to reveal confidential sources in federal court. Two reporters were sentenced to 18 months in prison and one reporter faced up to $5,000 a day in fines.
Another 40 reporters have had to obtain legal counsel to respond to subpoenas that have asked for the identity of the reporters’ confidential sources.
Fighting these cases on an ad hoc basis, with every conversation having the potential to hurt the source and put reporters in jeopardy, is an unacceptable solution to a Constitutional crisis.
Congress should not delay in providing this needed protection.
We are not asking for a free pass. We are asking for a qualified shield law that establishes reasonable standards for when a reporter can be compelled to testify such as when the information is needed to prevent acts of terrorism or other significant harm to national security.
It is a matter of the public’s right to know versus the comfort and convenience of narrow interests.
While newspapers and other media have a stake, this bill is about making sure information continues to flow to the public so that our citizenry is better informed on important public issues that affect their lives.
George B. Irish is vice chairman of the Newspaper Association of America and vice president and Eastern U.S. director of The Hearst Foundations.