ABFFE Seeks Bookstores to Host Reporters' Talks

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) is organizing a series of bookstore programs to educate the public about the importance of confidential sources for a free press. As part of this effort, ABFFE is urging booksellers to open their stores to reporters who want to speak about attempts to force them to reveal their confidential sources.

"From Watergate and the Pentagon Papers to Iran-Contra and Abu Ghraib, journalists have used information from confidential sources to reveal illegal conduct by our government," ABFFE President Chris Finan said. "It is vital to our democracy that we protect the people who are the sources for the exposes that are reported in newspapers, magazines, and books."

Bookstores interested in hosting an investigative reporter should contact Finan, who is working with the MLRC Institute, a not-for-profit educational organization focused on the media and the First Amendment, which has received a grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation to educate the public on this issue. "The MLRC Institute will work hard to find someone for every store," noted Finan. "However, it may take some time to identify the reporters, and it may not be possible to find someone in every place."

In addition to discussing stories that could not have been published without the use of confidential sources, the reporter will distribute and discuss material about the history of the fight over confidential sources, which dates back to efforts to imprison colonial journalists John Peter Zenger and Benjamin Franklin's brother, James.

Finan noted that, although prosecutors and journalists have long battled over the confidentiality of sources, there has been a large increase in the number of subpoenas issued to reporters in recent years.

Booksellers who are interested in participating should contact Finan at [email protected] or (212) 587-4025.