Goodlatte Applauds DOJ’s Revised Media Guidelines to Protect Press Freedom

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) issued the statement below on the Department of Justice’s revised guidelines regarding obtaining information from, or records of, members of the media: “I applaud the Justice Department for strengthening its guidelines to better protect journalists and the freedom of the press. Following Attorney General Holder’s misleading testimony before the House Judiciary Committee regarding the prosecution of members of the media, the Committee launched an investigation into his testimony and the Department’s pattern of aggressively pursuing national security leak cases involving journalists. As a result of its investigation, the Committee issued a report that found that the Justice Department needed to update its guidelines governing how it obtains information from the press in order to deter any unnecessary chilling effect on First Amendment activity. The new guidelines will help protect our cherished freedoms and begin the process of restoring trust with members of the media, the American people, and Congress.”   In July 2013, the House Judiciary Committee released a report on its investigation into the discrepancies between Attorney General Eric Holder’s sworn congressional testimony and his decision to obtain a search warrant for the emails of James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News, which stated Rosen was at the very least an “aider, abettor, and/or co-conspirator” of the person who allegedly leaked classified information. Among the report’s findings, the Committee found that the Justice Department needed to strengthen its regulations governing the collection of evidence from, or the investigation of, journalists. ###