The Free Flow of Information Act could include bloggers

Bloggers are one step closer to having some of the same federal protections as journalists. The House of Representatives passed the Free Flow of Information Act Tuesday with a sure-to-be-tested veto-proof majority. According to Speaker Pelosi's website:

A blogger who regularly engages in journalistic activities – such as gathering and publishing news and information for dissemination to the public – and does so for a substantial portion of the person’s livelihood or for substantial financial gain would be covered by the shield as a journalist.

This is obviously subject to judicial interpretation, especially the "substantial portion" clause. We don't trust the Bush Department of Justice (if you can call it that) to make the correct judgements here.

Fortunately for NPI and the local netroots community, Washington is one of 30 states to already have a media shield law. It makes sense for this protection to exist at the federal level as well.