{"id":1954670,"date":"2023-06-22T19:17:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T23:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/congressional-bill-aims-to-protect-journalists-from-government-surveillance\/"},"modified":"2023-06-22T19:19:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T23:19:01","slug":"congressional-bill-aims-to-protect-journalists-from-government-surveillance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/congressional-bill-aims-to-protect-journalists-from-government-surveillance\/","title":{"rendered":"New Bill Aims to Shield Journalists from Government Surveillance"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcongressional-bill-aims-to-protect-journalists-from-government-surveillance%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1954670&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<h2>American Journalists May Soon Have Protection from Government Surveillance<\/h2>\n<p>A bipartisan coalition in the House and Senate reintroduced the PRESS Act (Protect Reporters from Exploitive State Spying) on June 21 to limit the government\u2019s ability to seize journalists&#8217; private data. This legislation aims to safeguard reporters&#8217; First Amendment rights and prevent the disclosure of information that could endanger their sources.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate bill, supported by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), seeks to extend disclosure exemptions and standards to protect journalists&#8217; emails, phone records, and other sensitive information held by third parties.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed legislation will shield journalists against unnecessary government surveillance, ensuring accountability and preserving their ability to hold the government accountable.<\/p>\n<p>Reps. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) will introduce equivalent legislation in the House, following the unanimous success of the previous attempt to pass the bill in the last Congress.<\/p>\n<h3>Democrats and Republicans Unite to Protect Journalists&#8217; Rights<\/h3>\n<p>The senators introduced the act in response to incidents where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/oregon-governor-encourages-people-to-call-police-on-neighbors-violating-covid-orders\/\" title=\"Oregon Governor Encourages People To Call Police On Neighbors Violating COVID Orders\">law enforcement agencies<\/a>, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, secretly subpoenaed reporters&#8217; emails and phone records to uncover their sources.<\/p>\n<p>If passed, the PRESS Act will provide journalists with protection against government coercion to disclose confidential sources or research files. It will also safeguard their data held by third parties, such as phone and internet companies, from secret seizure without the opportunity for legal challenge.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-pushes-back-against-democrat-led-gun-control-efforts\/\" title=\"GOP pushes back against Democrat-led gun control efforts\">require federal authorities<\/a> to allow reporters to respond to data requests from law enforcement, while still granting courts the power to demand disclosure in cases involving terrorist identification or the prevention of imminent violence or harm.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Wyden emphasized the importance of the bill in preserving First Amendment press freedoms and the role of anonymous sources in holding the government accountable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpying on reporters to learn the identity of their sources is a finger in the eye of the First Amendment. Unnecessary surveillance of journalists makes it harder to bring waste, fraud, and abuse to light by scaring off essential sources and reporters. Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/congressional-bill-aims-to-protect-journalists-from-government-surveillance\/\" title=\"New Bill Aims to Shield Journalists from Government Surveillance\">bipartisan legislation creates strong protections<\/a> for reporters, with common sense exceptions for cases when the government truly needs information immediately,\u201d Wyden stated.<\/p>\n<p>Wyden also highlighted that harassment of the press by authorities could discourage reporters and sources from speaking out due to fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe First Amendment\u2019s guarantee of a free press is fundamental to holding politicians and others accountable,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American journalists may gain protection from Congress against federal government attempts to seize their private data. The bipartisan coalition reintroduced the PRESS Act on June 21, aiming to limit the government&#8217;s power to force reporters to disclose data that could expose identities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":1954671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1954670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1954670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1954671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1954670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1954670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1954670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}