Shield Law For Bloggers, New Bill Enters Congress

Shield laws are laws which protect journalists from being forced to disclose confidential information in legal proceedings. These laws protect the rights of a journalist from revealing confidential sources, notes, or other unpublished information and may be applied in both criminal and civil hearings.[1] There are currently no federal statutes pertaining to shield laws, and as such these laws are left up to the states to determine.

The bill defines journalism as "gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public."


The bill's authors are "not attempting to extend this privilege to everyone in our society," Boucher told CNET News.com. The bill's language, however, does not actually require that a covered person do journalism as an occupation or even on a regular basis. When asked how precise distinctions would be made, Boucher said it will ultimately be up to the courts to interpret and refine the bill's definition.

Although her organization would like to see as many people "under the umbrella of journalism" as possible, she said, "if everybody's a journalist, nobody's a journalist."