Whatever happened to democracy and the freedom of the press?

Over the last three years, more than 40 reporters and media companies were handed subpoenas from prosecutors or civil litigants. Journalists are expected to reveal the identities of their confidential sources and hand over notes and video footage. Some are being sentenced to jail or held in contempt and forced to pay crazy fines.

We want citizens to come forward when they see abuses--but then we abuse the messenger. Confidential relationships between reporters and their sources need protection, and finally the Senate is making time to talk about it.

This week they're expected to take up the long overdue Free Flow of Information Act. (It's a federal shield law.)

The big problem is that we need a federal standard and some ground rules. This bill should provide that--but it also requires reporters to tell all to prevent acts of terrorism or harm to national security, to give eyewitness observations of a crime and to hand over information needed to prevent death, kidnapping, or bodily harm.

So yea, it's not exactly absolute power we're asking for.

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter is sponsoring the bill, but Senator Bob Casey isn't even signed on yet. I don't quite understand why he's still "considering the bill." Even his buddy Barack Obama is signing up, as well as John McCain.

The House voted on similar legislation...last October. Every Pennsylvania member voted for it. Except John Peterson, who didn't vote.

There's a threat that President Bush might veto the bill, but if you've been watching the news in the past few weeks, you'd know that Barack Obama is apparently already president-- so I'm not too worried.

Anyway... I think Senator Specter said it best back in May,

"The importance of a free press is so woven into the fabric of our history that Americans often take it for granted. But when we observe fledgling democracies around the world, Americans can see just how essential a free media are to democracy -- and how easily they can be chilled. If we are to have a free press, it is necessary to protect the relationship between journalists and trusted sources to whom journalists have promised confidentiality."