Veteran investigative journalist Catherine Herridge testified before Congress Thursday, April 11, and discussed her firing from CBS News. She explained that she was let go on a Zoom call and locked out of her emails and office. Herridge said CBS then seized hundreds of her reporting files including confidential source information.
“When the network of Walter Cronkite ceases your reporting files, including confidential source information, that is an attack on investigative journalism,” Herridge said in a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
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Herridge said the files were eventually returned with the help of her union SAG-AFTRA.
“When my records were seized, I felt it was a journalistic rape,” Herridge said.
However, while Herridge’s termination and files have made headlines, the hearing was held to build support for a bill that could help all journalists be protected from government overreach, the PRESS Act.
If passed, the bill would shield journalists from government attempts to obtain the identities of their confidential sources.
“Confidential sources provide crucial information to reporters that helps them to share full and impactful stories with the public,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., said. “Government attempts to undermine the confidentiality of those sources erodes the press’s ability to perform that function.”
The PRESS Act would prohibit the federal government from compelling journalists to disclose protected information including sources, records, communications, documents or anything obtained or created by the journalist in the course of their work. It would provide similar protections for telecommunications services, like phone and internet companies, and social media companies.
There are exceptions for specific circumstances like preventing terrorism or imminent violence.
The bill passed the House without objection but has not been taken up in the Senate.
“It is now the Senate’s turn to take up this legislation to continue Congress’s commitment to protecting our fundamental freedoms,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas said. “Our constitutional guarantee of a free press is under attack.”
Both Democratic and Republican administrations have been guilty of surreptitiously seizing source information from journalists.
The Trump administration secretly seized phone records from three Washington Post reporters and tried to obtain their emails in an attempt to identify confidential sources on Russia’s role in the 2016 election.
The Obama administration issued a secret search warrant for Fox reporter James Rosen’s emails after he reported that North Korea would respond to sanctions with more nuclear tests.
Herridge is facing a court ordered fine of $800 per day in a case involving her confidential sources. She said she’s making the right decision to protect their identity.
“I have not lost a night’s sleep about my decision to protect my confidential sources,” Herridge said. “That is the core of who I am as a journalist. I am facing contempt fines because I am upholding the most basic principle of journalism: if you cannot offer a source a promise of confidentiality, as a journalist, your toolbox is empty.”
