Word: shield
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Congress is now considering several shield laws to prohibit government agencies from subpoenaing the confidential notes of journalists...
...would rather rely on the First Amendment [than shield laws]," Peter Jay '62, a correspondent for The Washington Post, said. Although recent court decisions have eroded the rights of the press, the U.S. still has a "far freer press than any other country in the world," he said...
...PUSEY LIBRARY will rise only nine feet above ground level. It will be covered with grass, shrubs and walkways, and a grassy surrounding mound will shield it from view. It will look, if anything, more foliated than the dusty open space between Houghton and Lamont that it will replace...
Kastenmeier meanwhile was getting varied opinions from journalists. Investigative reporters would be the prime beneficiaries of a shield law, but Clark Mollenhoff of the Des Moines Register, who has won a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative work, testified that journalists should fight subpoenas on an individual basis, relying on the Constitution for their defense. A law giving absolute protection, he said, could impede law-enforcement agencies and would give newsmen privileges "beyond anything enjoyed today by anyone except absolute monarchs." Anyone could get protection, Mollenhoff added, by claiming to be gathering information for a publication. (Actually, many of the bills...
Essential as legislative protection has become to assure unfettered newsgathering, it is crucial that the law be clear and comprehensive. Said Time Inc.: "A complex, heavily circumscribed shield law, leaving the question of privilege open to a wide variety of judicial interpretations, would be worse than nothing and might well invite a new wave of exploratory subpoenas...