• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 24, 2024

The journalism world is nervously tracking the effort by the incoming Trump administration to kill the Press Act, a shield law that would protect reporters and their sources. 

President-Elect Donald J. Trump called on Republicans to reject the law, which unanimously passed the U.S. House in January. 

“REPUBLICANS MUST KILL THIS BILL!” Trump wrote last week on Truth Social in what some see as an assault on press freedom.

Other voices demand that the Senate pass the bill while Democrats are still in control of the chamber and Joe Biden is in the White House, but House sponsor Kevin Kiley (R-CA) seems pessimistic about the chances of this happening.

“Based on the feedback we’ve received from Senators and President Trump, it’s clear we have work to do to achieve consensus on this issue,” he said last week, according to media reports. 

The bill would limit compelled disclosure of protected information by covered journalists. And it would place a similar limit on forced disclosure by covered service providers.

Why is this so important?

“The PRESS Act protects all voices: news sources, whistleblowers and the journalists they talk to from media outlets across the spectrum,” says Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild-CWA union. “Our members include journalists at the Wall Street Journal,the Detroit Free Press in Michigan, The Nation, Business Insider, the Miami Herald in Florida, the South Bend Tribune in Indiana, the Billings Gazette in Montana and more than 200 other newsrooms big and small, print and digital-only.”

Schleuss continues: “Americans would not know about the corruption of former Democratic Senator Bob Menendez or former Republican Representative George Santos without the hard work of local journalists holding power to account. We would not know about the water crisis in Flint, Mich. or why a 12-story condo building collapsed in Surfside, Fla., killing 98 people."

Concluding, Schleuss says: “We strongly urge all members of Congress to support the PRESS Act, protect American free speech and protect our nation’s free press.”

Pass the law — the press needs these protections.