Shield Law

This article originally appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: The Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of a federal "shield" law on Thursday, but still refused to include Julian Assange, Edward Snowden or citizen bloggers in the group of protected journalists.

A shield law allows a journalist to protect a confidential source unless the government can present a compelling reason, such as national security, to demand the source's name. Most states have shield laws but there is no federal law.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: President Barack Obama's public relations offensive to counter bad press about the NSA snooping on Americans and investigators snooping on reporters suffered multiple setbacks in the past week.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: Contrary to conventional wisdom, the proposed federal shield law backed by the press and President Barack Obama wouldn’t help reporters protect their sources in big national security cases, such as the recent ones involving the AP and James Rosen of Fox.  In fact, the law could make it harder for the press to protect sources in those cases.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: The Justice Department has the authority to subpoena the telephone records of news reporters, legal experts say, but its secret subpoena of the records of 100 AP reporters is unprecedented in scope.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: September 11, 2008- COLUMBIA, Mo. - Chris Koster, the Harrisonville Democrat running for attorney general, said Thursday that he would support the continuation of the Missouri Non-Partisan Court plan as it now operates. His opponent, Republican Mike Gibbons of Kirkwood said he wants some changes in the plan, which has been criticized by some conservatives.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: July 30, 2008 - U.S. Sen. Christopher S. Kit Bond has long opposed the shield bill on national security grounds, arguing that it would protect reporters who disclose classified information.  In 2007 he put it this way:  "Congress should be acting to make it easier to catch those who knowingly leak classified information, not make it more difficult."

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: July 28, 2008 - The Free Flow of Information Act seeks to enact on the federal level the same kind of protection for confidential information that 49 states have recognized either by statute or court decision.