Congressman Rick Boucher honored for Shield Law work

WASHINGTON - National news organizations honored Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., Tuesday for working to pass a federal shield law to protect journalists from revealing anonymous sources.

Boucher and Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., received the Sunshine in Government Award for their sponsorship of the Free Flow of Information Act, which passed the House with last year but has not yet passed the Senate.

“By providing this shield we can inspire both journalists and confidential inside sources to protect the public’s right to know and bring critical information to public light,” Boucher said in an interview after being honored at the Newspaper Association of America’s annual conference in Washington.

The shield law would cover anybody “engaged in journalism,” broadly defined to include bloggers.

Boucher, citing several recent cases where judges ordered journalists jailed for refusal to reveal confidential sources, said such reporters need a federal law protecting them from being “effectively turned into law enforcement investigators.”

Thirty-two states have shield laws. Virginia is not among them. The state shield laws allow reporters to keep conversations with sources private, just as discussions between doctors and patient or attorneys and clients are generally kept confidential.

“If the reporter is not in a position to offer confidentiality to that source, the information will not be disclosed,” Boucher said.

Under the proposed federal shield law, courts could compel journalists to talk in cases where their testimony could prevent imminent injury or death or protect national security. But the government would have to prove it first tried to obtain the information from alternative sources.

The legislation passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last year. Boucher lobbied the gathered news executives to call on the Senate to pass it.

President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, but all three major presidential candidates - Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Hillary Clinton - support it.

The award was given to Boucher by the Sunshine in Government Initiative, which is backed by the media industry’s major trade associations.