[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 15, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H592-H593]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          PROTECTING THE FIRST AMENDMENT, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, in 1786, Thomas Jefferson said: ``Our liberty 
cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited 
without danger of losing it.''

[[Page H593]]

  Today a Federal appeals court in the District of Columbia upheld a 
ruling against two reporters who could go to jail for refusing to 
divulge their confidential sources. Their attorney, Floyd Abrams, said, 
``Today's decision strikes a heavy blow against the public's right to 
be informed about its government.'' And he is right.
  Last week the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Boucher) and I introduced 
bipartisan legislation known as the Free Flow of Information Act, 
similarly introduced by Senator Richard Lugar in the Senate. It would 
provide a Federal media statute to protect the confidential source 
tradition that is at the very center of the freedom of the press, and I 
urge its support and passage.
  In the wake of today's troubling court decision, now is the time for 
Congress to reassert the first amendment, freedom of the press, 
vigorously by enacting a Federal media shield. Nothing less than the 
public's right to know is at stake.

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