Fellow Americans: Senators have just a few weeks left to pass the Press Act. The bill, a federal “shield” bill, passed the House of Representatives with unanimous and bipartisan support in early January, but has been awaiting a final vote in the Senate ever since.
If passed, the Press Act would provide nationwide protection for journalists across the country from being forced to identify or provide confidential information (except in emergencies such as counter-terrorism). The bill also allows for other protections, such as limiting the records the government can secretly remove from email or phone providers that could identify journalists or their sources, which are also urgent. Contains narrow exceptions to the threat of
Lawmakers have spent the past year pushing to pass federal protections for journalists in the Press Act, citing recent human rights abuses by the U.S. government. The most recent example was during the Trump administration, at the request of the Justice Department, to secretly seize the phone records of journalists working for CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post in order to determine the source of the leak.
As The Verge recently pointed out, protecting journalists and their sources will become increasingly important in President Trump's second term.
Forcing journalists to reveal the identity of their sources can have a major impact on reporting. People would be discouraged from talking to journalists, which would undermine the public's ability to learn about things that affect them. And we increasingly consume news from independent journalists and small news outlets that may not have the legal resources to fight government subpoenas for records. The Press Act provides similar comprehensive protections to journalists across the country, including independent journalists and news organizations that publish information in the public interest.
Although this bill does not directly impact the technology industry, TechCrunch, as a news organization, supports protecting and building on press freedom. Some of TechCrunch's most read and influential reports from readers like you expose corporate fraud, mismanagement in the startup world, details human rights abuses, and major breaches and data breaches. , cyberattacks, and crimes that would otherwise have gone unreported. TechCrunch has a history of standing up to legal demands to protect our sources. This is possible only with the protection of press freedom.
To date, the PRESS Act already has bipartisan support in the Senate, with co-sponsors including Sens. Ron Wyden, Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee, and Dick Durbin. However, as the Times reports, the bill remains pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where a minority of senators reportedly oppose it. The nature of Congress is such that a single dissenting member can disrupt the legislative process indefinitely.
The bill awaits a final vote on the Senate floor, which will take several weeks before it expires at the end of the legislative session. The ACLU has a simple web form you can use to send a memo to your senators, and you can also call or email your senators directly to request a vote on the Press Act.