New York Times reporter pleads for a shield law

Judith Miller spent time in jail for not revealing a news source.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- New York Times Reporter Judith Miller appealed to senators Wednesday for a federal law to shield the identities of news sources. The Justice Department argued that its rules for getting information from reporters work well and do not need to be fixed.
Miller told the Senate Judiciary Committee that such a law was needed "so that other journalists will not be forced, as I was, to go to jail to protect their sources." A bill before the committee would allow reporters to refuse to identify confidential news sources unless necessary to prevent imminent harm to national security.
"The source's confidence that we will not divulge his identity is crucial to his or her readiness to come to us with allegations of fraud or abuse or other wrongdoing," Miller said.
Negative response
But the Justice Department's representative, Chuck Rosenberg, a U.S. attorney in Texas, questioned whether any problem existed and said the proposed bill would hamper efforts to fight terrorism and protect national security.
"We should not enter this debate believing that the First Amendment is under assault by the Department of Justice," Rosenberg said. "Manifestly it is not."
Since 1991, only 12 of 243 subpoenas issued under department guidelines to news media called for confidential source information, Rosenberg said.
"We seek information about confidential sources from reporters only when it really, really matters," Rosenberg said. "What is broken about the way we are handling subpoenas to the media? ... I don't see anything in our work that justifies discarding 33 years of careful practice that has served the nation well."
The committee chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, and other lawmakers were skeptical.
"Here you have a reporter in jail for 85 days and millions of Americans wonder why? I'm one of those," said Specter, R-Pa., a former state prosecutor.
'Chilling effect'
Miller's jailing during the investigation into the disclosure of undercover CIA office Valerie Plame's identity "has had an obvious chilling effect on other reporters" around the country, Specter said.
Rosenberg declined to discuss Miller's case, but said: "Somehow it's gotten into the drinking water that all leaks are beneficial. Some ... are a crime in and of themselves."
But Miller told senators, "Even flawed reporters should not be jailed for protecting even flawed sources."
In testimony she submitted but did not read, Miller noted that some have said her source "did not deserve confidentiality because his motives were not pure." While journalists should try to learn leakers' motives, Miller said, "what counts far more ... is the truth and significance of what they are saying."
She also said reporters often have to promise anonymity before a source's information can be fully assessed.
"Those who need anonymity are not only the poor and the powerless, those whose lives or jobs might be in jeopardy if they speak up publicly, but even the powerful," Miller said.