David Greene of EFF writes:
The Senate Judiciary Committee last week approved a new version of the proposed media shield law, forging a compromise on who should be protected from having to reveal their journalistic sources in court. The amended bill, which is now clear to go for a full vote in the Senate, avoids defining who is a “journalist.” Moreover, it would allow judges the discretion to apply the protection to any person who, in the interest of justice, should be considered a practicing journalist.
The bill is far from perfect, but the new compromise opens the door to non-mainstream journalists, as well as new forms of journalism that may develop in the future.
Read more on EFF. EFF’s endorsement, while not exactly ringing, will be music to the ears of the coalition trying to get the bill passed. As Kurt Wimmer had suggested to me, EFF also seems some value in the bill for potentially increasing protections for citizen journalists/bloggers compared to what we have now. But yes, it’s still imperfect, and will continue to be until the voters in California wake up and oust Senator Feinstein.