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Bush officials oppose media
shield bill
PETE YOST
AP
News
Friday, April 4, 2008
Attorney General Michael Mukasey and three other top
Bush administration officials are weighing in against legislation
that would allow reporters to protect the identities of confidential
sources who provide sensitive, sometimes embarrassing information
about the government.
The "Free Flow of Information Act" proposed by Sen.
Arlen Specter, R-Pa., could harm national security and would encourage
more leaks of classified information, the four officials wrote
in letters to senators made public Thursday.
The legislation gives an overly broad definition of journalists
that "can include those linked to terrorists and criminals,"
wrote Mukasey and National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell.
(Article continues below)
"All individuals and entities who 'gather' or 'publish'
information about 'matters of public interest' but who are not
technically designated terrorist organizations, foreign powers
or agents of a foreign power will be entitled to the bill's protections,"
Mukasey and McConnell stated in their joint letter.
Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee,
responded: "My staff met today with DNI and DoJ officials
regarding the concerns expressed in the letter, and we are considering
them."
"I think the legislation has an important purpose,"
Specter added. "I think we can make reasonable accommodations
to their concerns, and we're working on it."
Full
article here.
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