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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, August 27, 2007

Public, media deserve a federal shield law

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Without confidential sources and information used by members of the free press, stories such as the steroid scandal in Major League baseball, the mistreatment of veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and Watergate may have never been exposed to the public.

Yet there has been growing pressure during the past few years on the federal level for journalists to turn over their notes and reveal their sources.

In 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for contempt after she refused to reveal her sources to a grand jury. In recent years, more than 40 reporters across the nation have been subpoenaed or questioned about confidential sources in federal court.

These attacks on journalists undermine the fundamental principle of a "free press."

Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have been wise enough to create their own shield laws, which essentially give reporters protection from revealing their sources and turning over notes and other materials.

Hawai'i is considering its own shield law, prompted in part by the subpoena of Web site reporter Malia Zimmerman over a story on the fatal Kaloko dam breach. This case is particularly complicated because Zimmerman is a blogger. On the Internet, where blogs are seemingly everywhere, the definition of a "journalist" has definitely blurred.

State Reps. Blake Oshiro and Gene Ward have written separate drafts of a state shield law, but there is little difference between them. Similar to other state laws, they protect journalists from disclosing sources and in state courts, but would not cover citizen bloggers. The drafts identify journalists and former journalists "of newspapers, wire services, magazines and radio and television stations."

Both Oshiro and Ward argue that in protecting journalists, they must show some degree of credibility. Bloggers, they agree, are still protected by their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.

This is a fair argument and a practical place to start. Until a federal shield law is passed, that's really all the state can, and should, do.

The bigger problem, however, is that such state laws don't protect journalists from federal agencies. And until that happens, the public's right to know is vulnerable.