Is Shield Law the Next WikiLeaks Victim?

摘要

A federal shield law may have just gotten a lot tougher to get through Congress in the wake of the latest WikiLeak, though one of the bill's principal supporters says that shouldn't be the case. One of the hang-ups about the bill, which would give limited immunity to journalists from federal subpoenas, for some legislators from both sides of the aisle was the definition of covered journalists and whether that extended to blogs and other online news/data gathering, specifically to WikiLeaks. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), for one, wanted to make it clear that the law would not protect sites like WikiLeaks after it leaked documents earlier in the summer about the Afghan war. With the leaks of diplomatic cables last week by WikiLeaks, nailing down that definition even more explicitly before a shield law bill passes is likely to take on added weight.