Shields leave journalists unprotected

editorial cartoon by Isela Peña
editorial cartoon by Isela Peña

For journalists, the famous words, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I am free at last!” are not common.

Despite having the First Amendment, it seems that nothing will ever be absolute in terms of the media possessing any type of freedom of the press.

The First Amendment clearly states that “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or the press.”

Yet as time has progressed, restrictions have continued to be placed on this “freedom of the press” and limitations placed against publishers of the written word.

In World War I, for example, the press was told what it could report, and negative press on the war-time actions of the United States was forbidden.

Issues such as “clear and present danger” arose along with a realization that there is only a fine line between this so-called freedom and the government’s interfering limitations.

All went wild in the Vietnam War, and to this day people blame the media for the negative public reaction that resulted from this uncensored war. With former President Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal, negative words were printed about this country’s leader and were protected by the First Amendment.

Now in the year 2000, two steps in the wrong direction have been made in courtrooms in both Sacramento and San Francisco. In a Sacramento courtroom, 20-year-old editor David Sommers, a student at California State University, Sacramento was held in contempt of court in December for refusing to turn over unpublished photographs and notes in a misdemeanor criminal trial. This future journalist is facing a fine, a jail sentence or both.

Meanwhile a judge in San Francisco has a similar story fuming in his chambers. The Tehama County judge has ordered that Tim Crews, publisher, editor and chief reporter and photographer for the Sacramento Valley Mirror, be sentenced to five days in jail on a contempt charge.

The solution to Crews’ problem should be the state’s shield laws, which were created to provide journalists the right to refuse disclosing the identities of confidential sources.

However, since many mistakes are made when dealing with legal entities, why not bend the rules a little to help out society’s non-efficient legal system? This seems to be what has happened in Crews’ case.

With the First Amendment in existence, there is no reason for journalists to be forced into jails. No crime has been committed. If the information a journalist has will make or break a case, then the real problem is to find a way to improve law enforcement. Police officers and FBI agents should have no trouble finding out the details that reporters get to and report the next day.

If the First Amendment continues to get dusty from its lack of use in regard to the media, stories like Sommers’ and Crews’ will not be considered newsworthy information.

Instead society will get used to having reporters thrown in jail for doing their jobs, and the more reporters this happens to, the less news will be published.

To stop the freedom of the press is to stop society’s free education. It will be a sad day when people realize that reading about the births, the deaths and the latest social events are all that is written in the newspaper.

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

Isela Peña

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