ABFFE Seeks Bookstores to Host Reporters' Talks on Confidential Sources

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) is seeking bookstores to host reporters who want to speak to the public about growing efforts to force journalists to reveal their confidential sources.

ABFFE first organized a series of programs about the importance of confidential sources for a free press in 2006, and "17 bookstores hosted some of this country's leading journalists and were very pleased with the results," said ABFFE President Chris Finan. "This year's programs will occur against the background of the dramatic fight to pass a reporters' shield law in Congress."

Bookstores interested in hosting a reporter should contact ABFFE, which will work with the MLRC Institute, a not-for-profit educational organization focused on the media and the First Amendment, to find a reporter who has worked on major stories that could not have been reported without the use of confidential sources. MLRC's efforts are being supported by a grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation.

In addition to discussing the cases for which they have firsthand knowledge, the reporters are expected to 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.

There has been a big increase in the number of subpoenas issued to reporters in recent years, according to ABFFE, which cited a few of the more well-known cases: New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who went to jail for 85 days before her source, I. Lewis Libby, released her from a confidentiality agreement regarding conversations about CIA agent Valerie Plame; a 2006 case against video blogger Josh Wolf, who was jailed for civil contempt for 226 days for refusing to hand over to a federal grand jury out-takes of his video of a protest in San Francisco in July 2005; and an August 2007 court ruling that ordered five journalists to disclose their sources for news stories about Steven Hatfill, who had been considered a possible suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks, or risk being held in contempt of court.

In October 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Free Flow of Information Act (H.R. 2102), which protects the confidentiality of reporters' sources in most federal cases. However, ABFFE noted the fight is expected to get tougher when the Senate takes up the bill this year. The Justice Department opposes it, and President Bush is likely to veto it if it reaches him, according to ABFFE.

Booksellers who are interested in hosting a reporter's talk should contact Finan at [email protected] or (212) 587-4025, ext. 15.