The Protect Reporters From Exploitative State Spying Act, also called the PRESS Act, passed the House of Representatives in January and has been before the Senate Judiciary Committee since then, awaiting action. We join scores of media outlets and nonprofits across the nation in urging the committee to advance the bill to a full Senate vote immediately.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the bill’s sponsor, has expressed succinctly why this bill’s passage is so urgent: We live in “a time when the federal government has increasingly retaliated against journalists for their use of confidential sources.”
The bill would bar the government from spying on reporters. It would bar the government from forcing journalists to reveal sources (with, of course, the exception of when it would be necessary to prevent terrorism or other threats of imminent violence). It would protect the confidentiality of reporters’ communications with those sources — including interviews, records, notes, and other materials. It would also prohibit third-party entities that hold data, like email providers and phone companies, from being compelled to reveal journalists’ information.
While 48 states and the District of Columbia have versions of shield laws that protect journalists, and these protections are enshrined in American tradition and norms, there is right now no official federal statute. We hardly need mention how timely this matter has become.
Donald Trump, who will return to the presidency in mere weeks, views journalists as the “enemy of the people.” At his rallies, sales were brisk in T-shirts bearing the words “Rope, tree, journalist, some assembly required.” Media outlets — other than those that hew loyally to the hard right — will continue to be targets of President Trump’s violent vitriol. Journalists were physically attacked on January 6. According to an Oct. 24 report by NPR, Mr. Trump “has pledged to toss reporters in jail and strip major television networks of their broadcast licenses as retribution for coverage he didn’t like.” (Networks don’t technically need federal licenses to operate, just to be clear.)
With all branches of the U.S. government now aligned under the banner of President-elect Trump, the so-called “Fourth Estate” — the press — now stands alone as a bulwark to defend dissent and democracy and to provide a voice for the people (as seen, weekly, on our Letters pages). Freedom of the press could not be more American. The Senate must act now to preserve that freedom.