Bill to protect journalists clears Senate panel

The Senate Judiciary Committee approves a media shield bill to keep 'real reporters' from having to testify on their work.

By David G. Savage, September 12, 2013, 9:38 p.m.

Journalists and bloggers who report news to the public will be protected from being forced to testify about their work under a media shield bill passed by a Senate committee Thursday.

But the new legal protections will not extend to the controversial online website Wikileaks and others whose principal work involves disclosing "primary-source documents … without authorization."  Senate sponsors of the bill and a coalition of media groups that support it hailed Thursday's bipartisan Senate Judiciary Committee vote as a breakthrough…… Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, one of five Republicans who opposed the bill, said Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. had overstepped his authority. "This bill was called for because of abuses by the Justice Department," he said.

The current administration has "been the most abusive to the press in modern times," Cornyn said, "but a new law is not what we need."….To ReadMore….