Law professor Geoffrey R. Stone, writing in the Daily Beast, said having an evidentiary privilege for journalists' sources is key to democracy. The point of the privilege is that confidential sources will be incentivized to reveal information to reporters without fear of retaliation and exposure, Stone says. It's good for democracy "to gain access to information that otherwise might never see the light of day" because wrongdoing will be exposed more, he says. Congress should enact a federal shield law even if it means that lines are drawn on who qualifies as a journalist and what information is protected by the privilege, he concludes.
Lawyer and Legal Journalist
