Journalist bill may benefit terrorists, House panel told(Conyers: DOJ officials' remarks are absurd)

[maddezmom]

Source: SFGate

Committee chair says Justice officials' remarks are 'absurd'
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Friday, June 15, 2007

(06-15) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The Bush administration, which opposes legislation to shield journalists from revealing their confidential sources, warned lawmakers Thursday that the measure's broad definition of journalists could protect the media wings of terrorist groups.

But House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., challenged the Justice Department's claim, calling it "totally absurd."

The administration made the assertion that terrorists would seek to evade prosecution by invoking a reporter's privilege in federal court at a Judiciary Committee hearing on the media shield bill. The bill would protect reporters, in most cases, from having to disclose their confidential sources or turn over documents to federal prosecutors.

Although the effort to protect reporters stalled last year in the House and Senate, supporters said its prospects appear to be improving in the new Congress controlled by Democrats.

Rachael Brand, assistant attorney general in the office of legal policy, said criminals might post documents or video on Web sites, then invoke the new protections for journalists in an effort to thwart prosecutors. The groups could include "media components of terrorist organizations," she said.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/15/MNGDVQFUTK1.DTL&feed=rss.news

[maddezmom]

1. Conyers Backs Journalists, Slams Media

Conyers Backs Journalists, Slams Media

(Broadcasting & Cable) _ The House Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on the proposed federal shield law Thursday.

The law would protect journalists' sources, including those of bloggers, in federalo investigations, with some carve-outs for national security, trade seccrets or personal health information, but a just would have to determine that seeking those sources trumped the public's interest in protecting them.

Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) supports the bill, but in his opening remarks THursday suggested that reporters needed protection not only from federal investigators but from their own corporate parents.

more:http://videoediting.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=151898

[rodeodance]

2. Thats the the WH has now: Terror fears and rhetoric.

[gratuitous]

3. If this bill fails, the terrorists can always fall back on their previous position

Invoking executive privilege to avoid testifying.