Things are looking up for bloggers, with lawmakers once again talking about enacting a reporters' shield law that would cover journalists who aren't employed by a mainstream media outlet.
Late
last week, Sens. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said they had crafted a bill that would apply to
people engaged in journalism -- or reporting and disseminating news -- even if they weren't on staff.
The new proposal would cover people who report and write news, provided they intend from
the beginning to "disseminate to the public news or information."
That's a notable improvement from September, when the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed a proposal that would have applied
only to people on the payroll of a news organization -- a requirement that would have left many bloggers, book authors and other freelancers without protection.
If enacted, the shield law
would allow journalists to maintain the confidentiality of their sources under some (but not all) circumstances.
Almost all states already give reporters some ability to protect the identity
of their sources -- either because the states have shield laws or because courts have ruled that reporters have the right to maintain their sources' confidentiality.
But the lack of a
national shield law means that federal judges can -- and do -- order journalists jailed for refusing to divulge their sources.
Shield laws encourage whistle-blowers to come forward by
providing assurances that they can disclose important information to a journalist and still keep their identity secret from the government. Those assurances shouldn't depend on whether the journalist
is a staff reporter for The New York Times, a book author or a freelancer who occasionally blogs for the local weekly paper.