DURHAM, NC (March 5, 2005) – The National Press Photographers Association will join in with a group of organizations who are supporting a bill to create a federal shield law for journalists, NPPA Advocacy Committee chairperson and NPPA vice president Alicia Wagner Calzada said today. The other organizations include the Newspaper Association of America, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Radio-Television News Directors Association & Foundation, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Association of American Publishers, and a collection of publishers, television companies, and others.
“This is very important to both our still and television members because it deals with the subpoena of photographs, digital files, video outtakes, and negatives,” Calzada said. “Recent events make it clear that this law is necessary. Over the past year, judges have repeatedly ruled that the First Amendment alone doesn’t protect a journalist from revealing sources. Many states already have shield laws and several others are now considering them. This bill will protect journalists and enhance our nation’s press freedoms.”
The “Free Flow of Information Act of 2005” has been introduced in the Senate (S. 340) and the House (H.R. 581). Attorney Kurt Wimmer, of the Washington, DC, law firm of Covington & Burling, said “The bill would create a federal journalists’ privilege under which journalists could not be required to divulge confidential sources by federal courts or other entities. Of more practical value to photojournalists, it also would create a privilege for newsgathering materials – including photographs, digital files, video outtakes, negatives and all other documents.”
“Under this privilege for newsgathering materials,” Wimmer says, “a journalist could not be required by a federal court to testify or provide materials in response to a subpoena unless the party seeking disclose proves, by clear and convincing evidence, that (1) the material or testimony is not available from other sources and (2) that the material is highly relevant to the proceeding. This protection is equivalent to the best state shield laws. It would not take the place of any of state shield laws, which are in place in 31 states and the District of Columbia. It would simply add protection to demands for your newsgathering materials from federal, in addition to state, entities.”
“Photographers can't properly and safely do their jobs unless they can be seen as independent of law enforcement,” Calzada says. “Each time a subpoena is issued for unpublished negatives, it chips away at the independent nature of journalists and our role as unbiased observers.”
Wimmer, along with the Covington & Burling firm, have provided pro-bono counsel to NPPA on many issues involving press freedom and First Amendment challenges, including filing briefs on behalf of NPPA in cases before appellate, state, and federal courts, including a recent United States Supreme Court case in July 2004 (Durruthy v. Pastor). The NPPA Advocacy Committee was created in November 2003 to promote awareness and timely responses to issues threatening news photographers.
“This bill is significant from a historical perspective because in the past journalists have often been the ones to stand against shield laws, not wanting the government to be legislating journalism and believing that the First Amendment was what we should all stand on,” Calzada said.
For more information about NPPA’s role in supporting the bill to create a federal shield law, or more information on the work of the Advocacy Committee, please contact Calzada at vicepresident@nppa.org.
