OSCE media freedom representative calls for U.S. national shield law

VIENNA, 28 May 2013 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, in a letter to the U.S. Helsinki Commission today, reiterated her call for a shield law to protect journalists and their sources in light of recent disclosures of state surveillance of journalists’ conversations.

“I am deeply concerned that surveillance of media by law enforcement officials will have a profoundly chilling effect on the right of journalists to pursue important stories of public interest,” Mijatović wrote to Commission Chairman Senator Benjamin Cardin and Co-chairman Representative Christopher Smith. “Current developments, including the disclosures in the Associated Press and James Rosen (Fox) affairs, show the law is needed now more than ever.” She also noted that President Obama had called for such a law as well. 

“A well-crafted shield law would eliminate the threat of journalists going to prison for declining to identify their sources and would stem the tendency of law enforcement officials to engage in overbroad monitoring of journalists' activities,” she said.

The Representative’s Office has long campaigned for a shield law, which has stalled in several of the last sessions of Congress.