Journalists need a get-out-of-jail-free card: Who can blame federal prosecutors for trying to convert journalists into their personal snitches? For the prosecutors, demanding that journalists burn their confidential sources is invariably a winning proposition.
It doesn?t work out that well for journalists ? or the public. [...]
If reporters give up their sources, or agree to cooperate in any way short of that, they may provide information that will serve as the basis for new subpoenas and demands.
If reporters refuse to give up their sources or to cooperate, the resulting legal battle sidelines reporters covering the cases and saddles their employers with huge costs in time and resources. In the end, they may pay heavy fines and wind up in jail anyway.
Under these circumstances, why would journalists go to such lengths to protect their sources? It?s not all that complicated. Journalists see it as their constitutional duty to provide an other-than-government source of information about matters of public import. [...]
So the question becomes: Why would prosecutors go after journalists when they have at their disposal a large force of investigators armed with badges and guns and an arsenal of legal powers such as subpoenas, warrants, wiretaps and computer tracking technology? [...]
How many journalists have to go to jail before prosecutors, judges and American citizens recognize that public justice and an independent press are not mutually exclusive?
