The Committee to Protect journalists is calling on Attorney General nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to commit to support guidelines that make it harder for the Justice Department to subpoena journalists' records.
At the hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), whose father was a journalist, said she was particularly sensitive to the journalist's role as a watchdog and asked him to commit to guidelines Attorney General Eric Holder issued in 2015, which include releasing an annual report on any subpoenas and promising not to put journalists in jail for doing their jobs.
Sessions did not commit, saying he needed to study the guidelines.
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Klobuchar said that while there were "a few examples of where the press and the Department of Justice haven't agreed," she believes DOJ "does have sensitivity to this issue" and that "for the most part there is a broadly recognized and proper deference to the news media."
But she added a caveat, saying, "You could have a situation in which the media is not really the unbiased media we see today and they could be a mechanism through which unlawful intelligence is obtained."
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Klobuchar said she would follow up with Sessions in written questions, but the CPJ was not waiting around.
"We urge Senator Jeff Sessions, if confirmed as attorney general, to follow the revised guidelines set out by Attorney General Eric Holder," said Carlos Lauría, CPJ's senior program coordinator for the Americas, in a statement. "The U.S. government should be expanding protections for journalists to gather the news and maintain confidential sources. They must not roll these protections back."
