Reporters' Privilege Legislation: Preserving Effective Federal Law Enforcement: Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary
by
United States Congress Senate
Original publisher: Washington: U.S. G.P.O.: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 2007. LC Number: KF26 .J8 2006ze OCLC Number: (OCoLC ...
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Original publisher: Washington: U.S. G.P.O.: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 2007. LC Number: KF26 .J8 2006ze OCLC Number: (OCoLC)123501868 Subject: Confidential communications -- Press -- United States. Excerpt: ... 11 C ULTY Mr. M N. Yes. Senator S. This is an important issue. It relates to this CHUMER legislation. We deserve a response. It was a very careful and well-thought-out letter. Mr. M N. OK. C ULTY Senator S. OK, fine. CHUMER Let me conclude by saying just as we have to balance liberty and security, we need to balance a free and independent press against the needs of law enforcement, and I think this legislation comes as close as one can to striking that balance. I yield. Chairman S. There is no question pending, Mr. McNulty, PECTER but would you like to answer. Mr. M N. Sixty seconds. I know we are moving along fast. C ULTY I wanted to say first my statement's language was not properly qualified. I apologize for that, because my intention here is to talk about the unlawful leaking. ' ' Leaking ' ' is a general term, and it is best to use it in a qualified way. And I am referring here to where it is a violation of law. I certainly understand your point about the fact that disclosing information generally can be certainly not a vio-lation of law and, therefore, can be of some help, or whatever, de-pending upon the circumstances. Just one other quick point, and that is, I really appreciate, Sen-ator Schumer, your acknowledgment of the fact that there is an area where it is unlawful to disclose information, whether it is clas-sified or it is grand jury. My concern about this bill is that no mat-ter what side of the debate you are on here, you have to say that it is going to make it harder for the Government to get this infor-mation. That is sort of the point of it, that we have to go to court. We have the burden, and we have to convince the judge that this interest and this need outweighs the public right to know and gath-er information fr...
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