Senate committee passes shield law that includes citizen journalists
Via Daily Kos:
By a 14-5 vote yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved S. 448, Free Flow of Information Act of 2009, and has sent it on to the full Senate for consideration. The bill, introduced by Senators Specter, Schumer, Graham and Klobuchar in Committee, for the first time extends press shield protections to matters in federal courts, allowing journalists to withhold their sources from federal prosecutors except in cases involving national security, and crucially will do so while giving online journalists equal access to these protections.
The Judiciary Committee voted 11-8 against an amendment that excluded citizen journalists. The amendment was drafted by Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Diane Feinstein. Lest we think that ALL Democrats are hostile to the concept that the 1st Amendment applies only to Big Media, consider:
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) endorsed the “carefully crafted” bill’s inclusion of bloggers, and hailed Benjamin Franklin for his “anonymous blogs” that explained “the reasons why this country should exist.”
Pamphleteer Thomas Paine likewise got a few mentions as the senators debated whether to define a journalist as someone employed by a mainstream organization.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) added that the medium that news appears in shouldn’t determine whether journalists are covered. “People can do bad things on paper and good things on paper,” he said. “They can do bad things electronically and good things electronically.”
Kudos to the likes of Schumer and Leahy. And this is one blogger who will consider Dubin’s hostility to the 1st Amendment when his reelection comes around.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Has Durbin explained his rationale for excluding “nonprofessional” journalists? Seems hard to defend. Glad it went nowhere.