Media Shield Law Would Cover Al Qaeda
So says Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey Jr.
“The definition of a ‘covered person’ contained in subparagraph 7(1)(A) of the bill raises several distinct concerns.
“…it would cover criminal or terrorist organizations that also have media operations, including many foreign terrorist organizations, such as al Qaeda (which, from its founding, maintained a media office that published a newsletter). Indeed, the inherent difficulty of appropriately defining a ‘covered person’ in a world in which the very definition of ‘media’ is constantly evolving, suggests yet another fundamental weakness in the bill.”
Accuracy In Media is reporting this today in their Media Monitor, which you can read or listen to here.
2 Responses to “Media Shield Law Would Cover Al Qaeda”
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Thank you for posting this news… I don’t know much about this issue. What is the supposed intended purpose of this bill?
What the law proposes to do is protect journalists from prosecution or imprisonment for protecting sources/knowledge they have. One of the many follies of the bill is what Comey points out: “the media” is pretty hard to define. It could include terrorists (or the mob, the Klan, etc).