federal shield law

UNPLUG WIKILEAKS? ENACT A FEDERAL SHIELD LAW INSTEAD

BY PETER SCHEER—-The Obama administration has made no secret of its desire to unplug wikileaks, the whistleblower website infamous for data dumps of classified records. Of the few options available to the government, the best is one that probably hasn’t been considered in this context: enacting a federal Shield Law. How would a Shield Law–a version of which has passed the House and awaits a vote by the full Senate—put Wikileaks out of business? The

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WikiLeaks case shows need for federal shield law for reporters

The Cincinnati Enquirer argues that the federal shield law now in Congress, while providing for national security and fair trials, will strengthen the media in its quest to hold government and other powerful entities accountability and make it less likely that sources go to “fringe entities” such as WikiLeaks to protect their anonymity. -db Cincinnati Enquirer Editorial August 6, 2010 On the surface, it might seem that the recent WikiLeaks scandal, which involved classified military

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Senate works to exclude leaked war documents from federal shield law

In reaction to Wikileaks’ publication of Afghanistan war documents, Senators Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein are amending the proposed federal shield law to exclude websites that publish leaked government documents without editorial comment. -db Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press August 4, 2010 By Cristina Abello Legislators are amending the federal shield bill, which was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in December 2009 but not yet brought up on the floor of the

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Federal court scuttles subpoenas for two years of news coverage of murder investigation and court sessions

A federal judge in North Carolina rejected a request from the defense in a murder trial to force the media to produce public records of news coverage of the case holding that that would shift the burden for the defense from the suspect to the media. -db The Newsroom Law Blog March 18, 2010 By Elizabeth Spainhour North Carolina media organizations won a significant victory in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of

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Federal shield bill for reporters passes major hurdle

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send the federal media shield bill to the full Senate after months of debate and amendments. The contentious issue of whether bloggers and other citizen journalists will be covered by the bill has yet to be determined. -DB Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press December 10, 2009 By Cristina Abello The Senate Judiciary Committee today voted to present the federal media shield bill to the full Senate, a

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