Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.) plan to reintroduce their long-stalled legislation that would shield reporters from having to reveal their sources to federal prosecutors in most cases, according to the Chronicle. The exceptions would be in cases where disclosure could prevent imminent harm to national security, where journalists were first-hand observers to a crime, and where a corporation's trade secret was revealed. The Chronicle also reports that Sens. Chris Dodd, (D-Conn.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) are preparing to reintroduce a similar bill in the Senate.
In a congressional hearing yesterday in Washington, representatives from the ACLU, the National Security Archive, and the Sunshine in Government Initiative, of which AAN is a member, told lawmakers that key reforms are needed if FOIA is to truly be "democracy's x-ray." Among the recommendations heard by the newly formed House Government Reform and Oversight Information Policy Subcommittee: creating a FOIA ombusdman and penalizing non-cooperative departments. MORE: Clark Hoyt's testimony (Word doc) on behalf of SGI.
The Congressional Research Service issued a new report (PDF) last week on the history of the Freedom of Information Act and related legislative reform efforts. Meanwhile, the newly formed House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives has scheduled a hearing for Thursday, Feb. 15, on a FOIA reform bill that is supported by AAN and the other members of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a Washington-based coalition of media organizations committed to promoting open-government policies. Rep. John Yarmuth, the former owner of AAN member Louisville Eccentric Observer, is a member of the Information Policy subcommittee.
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston yesterday ruled on a motion filed last month by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the non-profit Media Alliance. The plaintiffs asked the court to unseal documents in an antitrust lawsuit seeking to overturn a Bay Area newspaper deal between Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group Inc. "Victory!" proclaims the Bay Guardian, which reports Illston ruled that "many of the documents" will be made public. Not so fast, says Associated Press in the pages of MediaNews' San Jose Mercury News. AP reports that while "portions of two documents" will be unsealed, the plaintiffs "failed to convince (Illston) to open key documents" in the case.
In a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee member Tom Davis (R-VA) also criticized the Department of Justice for the agency's efforts to prosecute San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. The two were ruled in contempt of court in September after ignoring the subpoenas and refusing to reveal their sources to a grand jury in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid case. Currently, their sentences are suspended pending appeal.
The Democratic chair of the newly re-named House Government Reform Committee has announced the creation of a subcommittee dedicated to increasing the flow of government information, reports The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The newly born Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives will promote transparency in government, says the California congressman. "We have legislative jurisdiction over [the Freedom of Information Act] and some of the other issues that relate to openness in government," Waxman told the The Hill. ALSO: Florida's new Governor plans an open-government office.
Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter Gregg Kakesako and freelancer Sarah Olson have been summoned to appear at a pre-trial hearing this month at Fort Lewis, Wash. The case involves 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, 28, who has publicly criticized the war in Iraq and has refused his deployment order. "Trying to force a reporter to testify at a court-martial sends the wrong signal to the media and the military," writes Military Reporters and Editors President James W. Crawley, on the organization's Web site. "One of the hallmarks of American journalism is a clear separation of the press and the government. Using journalists to help the military prosecute its case seems like a serious breach of that wall."
Norman Pearlstine (pictured) last week sought federal documents relating to subpoenas of reporters in three recent cases of reporter-source privilege, reports the Wall Street Journal. The cases -- ranging from stories on Barry Bonds' alleged steroid use to terrorist financing -- illustrate growing tensions between news organizations, the White House, and Congress over the extent of the First Amendment rights of journalists to protect confidential sources. "I believe that the framers of the Constitution put a free and independent press in the First Amendment to protect the public's right to know, and the only way you do that is protect reporters' ability to keep certain sources confidential," says Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, a Republican critic of the White House on the issue. Pence will cosponsor legislation in the 110th Congress to protect journalists against government harassment over sources.
The San Francisco alt-weekly and the Media Alliance filed papers yesterday to intervene in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Bay Area newspaper deal between Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group Inc., reports Editor & Publisher. The Bay Guardian hopes to unseal documents filed by the two companies in the case. "The courts are supposed to operate in public, and there's a clear public interest in this information," says Editor and Publisher Bruce Brugmann (pictured). "Our intent here is to ensure that the nation's biggest newspaper chains, as they move to destroy daily competition and impose a regional monopoly on the Bay Area, cannot do so in the dark of night with sealed records that set a terrible precedent for the free press, the First Amendment, and open government."
The first minute of the new year will see the instant declassification of a mountain of previously secret government documents in what is set to become an annual event under a "25-year law" passed by the Clinton Administration but that is only now coming into effect, reports the New York Times. The somewhat surprising decision by the Bush administration to uphold the law -- after two three-year delays -- which places a quarter-century limit on the classified status of most government documents, is being lauded by open-government advocates and historians alike. "Americans need to know this history, and the history is in those documents," Anna K. Nelson, a historian at American University, tells the Times.
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