[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2318-2319]
[From the U.S. 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.''
  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.

[[Page 2319]]

  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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