In recent weeks, Seth Stern and John Cusack of the Freedom of the Press Foundation have written in the Sun-Times advocating for passage of the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying (PRESS) Act. They have called on me, in my role as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to help pass the bill.
I couldn’t agree more with Seth and John about the critical role a free and independent press plays in our democracy. Without the press to inform the public and hold politicians and others in power to account, our country’s experiment with democracy would have failed long ago. So, a bill that protects journalists and their sources from government harassment is important.
