Dear Americans: Your senators are just weeks away from passing the PRESS Act, the federal “shield” bill that the House passed with unanimous, bipartisan support in January but has since been awaiting a final vote in the Senate.
If passed, the PRESS Act would establish nationwide protections for journalists across the United States from being forced to identify or give up confidential sources (except in emergency situations, such as preventing acts of terrorism). The bill also grants other protections, including limiting what records the government can secretly take from email or phone providers that could identify journalists or sources, with limited exceptions for urgent threats.
Lawmakers have been trying to pass federal protections for journalists for the past year, citing recent abuses by the U.S. government, including the secret seizure of phone records of journalists who worked for CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post. This is a request from the Justice Department under the Trump administration. As The Verge noted last week, protections for journalists and their sources will become increasingly important in Trump’s second term.
Forcing journalists to reveal the identities of their sources could have a significant chilling effect on news gathering. People will be reluctant to talk to journalists, which will harm the public’s ability to be informed about things that affect them. We are also increasingly consuming news from independent journalists and smaller media outlets that do not have the legal resources to fight government subpoenas for our records. The PRESS Act provides the same comprehensive protections to journalists across the United States and also applies to independent journalists and media outlets who publish information in the public interest.
Although this bill does not directly impact the tech industry, as a news outlet we are in favor of protecting and building on free speech. Some of TechCrunch’s most read and influential reporting comes from readers like you who expose corporate malfeasance, mismanagement in the startup world, detail human rights abuses, and expose major breaches and data breaches, cyberattacks and crimes. It came out. Otherwise it may not have been reported. TechCrunch has a history of fighting legal claims to protect its sources. We can do this only by protecting freedom of speech.
The current press bill already has bipartisan support in the Senate, with Senators Ron Wyden, Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee, and Dick Durbin serving as co-sponsors. The bill awaits a final vote in the Senate, with several weeks left before the legislative session ends and the bill expires.
The ACLU has a web form if you want to send a memo to your senator. Or, you can call or email your senator directly and ask them to vote for the PRESS Act.
