Prospects for getting a federal press source shield measure enacted this year appear to be waning, even though the bill already sailed through the House and has just one public opponent in the Senate.
Supporters of the bill, which would prevent the federal government from compelling journalists to reveal their sources except when doing so might prevent imminent violence or identify a terrorist, want the Senate to pass it before the end of this congressional session.
“Given that we have both parties telling the public that should the other win [the upcoming elections], the United States will turn into an authoritarian country where there will be crackdowns on speech and crackdowns on the press, both parties should be commonly interested in getting this bill through right away as a safeguard,” said Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation. “It’s not a hypothetical: Pretty much every administration has at some point attempted to find out who journalists’ sources were for stories that embarrassed them.”
