Editorial: Ensuring a free press

Wednesday, June 29, 2005 | 8:48 a.m.

This week the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case in which two reporters have refused to identify their sources to a federal grand jury. In this case, the federal grand jury is investigating who in the Bush administration revealed the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame. The irony in this case is that neither reporter -- one from The New York Times and one from Time magazine -- actually wrote a story about Plame, yet the independent prosecutor investigating the case still demands to know their sources. If the reporters continue to refuse to reveal their sources, they could go to prison.

As we have written before, it will be a free press in name only if the government is able to force reporters to divulge their sources. Reporters aren't above the law, but 49 states have laws recognizing that reporters have the privilege to keep their sources confidential. The Supreme Court, by declining to intervene, has made it even more compelling for Congress to pass a shield law to protect this privilege in federal court cases.

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