Shield Americans' access to the truth

[struggle4progress]

Sometimes it takes an anonymous source for the truth to come out

Suppose the head of the U.S. General Services Administration abuses her position to aid Republican candidates and urges her staff to do the same. And suppose investigators document that violation of the Hatch Act. That is something the public should know, so someone leaks the report to the media.

One need not suppose. The GSA head's name is Lurita Doan, but the leaker's identity remains a mystery. The Bush administration, no doubt, would very much like to know who that person is as it conducts damage control in the unfolding tale. ~snip~

The threat of exposure hangs over all anonymous sources, discouraging them from reporting abuses and chilling the flow of information between government and the public.

Southwest Virginia's Rep. Rick Boucher hopes to change that. He is sponsoring a bill that would shield journalists from federal sanction for protecting their sources. In other words, a court could not send a reporter to jail for keeping a source's name secret. ~snip~

http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-121246