Journalist shield bill makes progress in Legislature

A Free Flow of Information bill has been introduced in the House and Senate and is expected to move quickly through the Legislature.

House Bill 670 by State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer mirrors the version of the Free Flow bill that came out of the House Judiciary Committee last session. An identical bill is also making its way through the Senate.

The bill says that any body with authority to issue a subpoena cannot compel a journalist to testify or produce or disclose in an official proceeding any confidential or nonconfidential information, document or item obtained or prepared while acting as a journalist. The source of any information, or document described in the bill could not be subpoenaed with some exceptions.

It provides that, after notice and an opportunity to be heard, a court may compel testimony or require the journalist to produce any information or document or the source if the person seeking it makes a clear showing that: all reasonable efforts have been made to get the information from an alternative source, the subpoena is not overbroad, unreasonable or oppressive and limited to the verification of published information, and the subpoena is not being used to obtain "peripheral, nonessential or speculative information."

The information has to be relevant and essential to a case. It must be central to the investigation or prosecution of a criminal case based on something other than the assertion of the person seeking the subpoena and reasonable grounds exist that a crime has been committed.

A journalist would have to testify if he or she were an eyewitness to a crime. Testimony would be required if the source was someone who had participated in a violent crime and the person seeking the testimony had exhausted reasonable efforts to get the information from some other source. Testimony would be required if there it was reasonably necessary to stop or prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm.

An application for a subpoena would have to be signed by a district attorney or county attorney. Timely notice would be required and an order would have to include "clear and specific findings" on which the court relied in issuing he court order.

At a legislative session preview meeting in Austin hosted by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors, open government advocates and representatives of media organizations reviewed media issues likely to come before the Legislature.

"We stand a very good chance of passing a Free Flow of Information Act this year," Michael Schneider, programs director for the Texas Association of Broadcasters, said, according to the AP.

More than 30 states have some form of a shield law. Chances are good because of past groundwork and changes in the leadership in the House of Representatives, those attending said. Similiar proposals have failed in previous sessions. The fact that a shield law bill passed in the Texas Senate last time was a hopeful sign.

House Speaker Tom Craddick allowed the bill to come to a vote in 2007, but it was late in the session and a Republican legislator shot it down on a technical point.

A spokesman for Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat who sponsored the shield law in 2007, said winning approval in the Senate last time was a major step forward. Jeremy Warren, the communications director for Sen. Rodney Ellis, said it will pass the Senate again and new House leadership may be more open-minded.

Proponents say the legislation would protect the public because it would encourage whistleblowers to come forward with information that could reveal corruption, the AP story said. Opponents, including district attorneys, say it could hinder their ability to gather evidence in criminal cases.

The act would take effect Sept. 1 if passed.

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Obama vows to open up federal government, reverses Bush administration policy

In the first few days of his administration, President Barack Obama took action to promote openness in the federal government.

"Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their government is doing," the president said in a memo. It told his staff he would be running an open administration and directed them to follow suit, Jennifer LaFleur wrote in her Citizen Watchdog column in the Dallas Morning News.

Obama also issued a memo on FOIA that directed agencies to work toward disclosure when fulfilling requests.

"The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fear," the memo said.

The actions are in contrast to the policy of the Bush administration. Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2001 issued a memo telling federal agencies that his office would support their decisions to withhold information.

"When you carefully consider FOIA requests and decide to withhold records, in whole or in part, you can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions," the Ashcroft memo said.

In his memo, President Obama asked the new attorney general to issue guidelines on FOIA, "reaffirming the commitment to accountability and transparency."

An Obama memo also directed agencies of the federal government to use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their government.

Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, said it would be "an enormous change for government openness and accountability and for the ability of the public to meaningfully participate."

The president also reversed an order by President Bush that gave formerly presidents and their heirs broad authority to stop the release of White House records.

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