Lucy Dalglish

The First Amendment is by far the most important amendment in protecting the rights of journalists across the country.

Lucy Dalglish, the Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of Press, emphasized just that to a group of journalism students at the University of Albany tonight.

Standing at a podium in the fading sunlight Dalglish explained to the students that their right to freedom of press was in jeopardy. “In the last couple of years things have gotten really bad, with the number of secrets kept by the national government souring,” Dalglish said.

She described through numerous examples how our government is slowly tightening its grip on journalists' right to information and to keep their notes and sources confidential, a power that has allowed journalists to publish the most sensitive of information without putting their sources livelihood or life itself at risk.

The case of the U.S. government vs. Toni Locy, a writer for USA Today at the time, highlighted her discussion. Dalglish explained how Locy had written a number of stories on the anthrax scare in 2002 and the possibility that a man named Steven Hatfill was the perpetrator.

As it turned out, Hatfill had in turned sued the federal government for violating the Federal Privacy Act. He claimed that executive officials had told reporters, such as Locy, he was under investigation for involvement with the anthrax scare, thus violating his right to privacy. However, he could only recover damages if he could prove that a member of the executive branch had leaked his information.

For his case to hold up in court Hatfill’s lawyers subpoenaed a number of reporters, including Locy to hand over their sources and notes. However, Locy, like many other reporters had thrown away her notes and had forgotten exactly who and what her sources had told her. Because Locy could not produce the subpoenaed documents the judge found her in contempt and charged her a $5,000 a day fee until she could produce them.

Dalglish explained that the underlying problem here is that there is no Federal Shield Law in place and never has been. A shield law, which almost all states have, protects journalists from having to hand over their notes and disclosing confidential sources in court.

“We have no Federal Shield Law and we are seeing the federal government arresting reporters for refusing to disclose their sources,” Bob Porter, senior editor of the Times Union, said. However, the implantation of a Federal Shield Law is exactly what Dalglish and her team have been working on in Washington and they have accomplished to get the highest majority vote in Congress for this bill that they have ever seen, with a 319-21 vote in the House.

“These bills are not perfect,” Dalglish said, “they are a product of reasoned compromise.” Although this has been the most success this particular legislature has seen in Congress over the last 30 years Dalglish says we will have to see what happens in the November elections before anything will be amended.