Justin Gardner
The controversy last year over secretly recorded video taken of Planned Parenthood employees has turned into a bigger controversy over the First Amendment rights of journalists.
After losing the attempt to bring federal charges against the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress, Planned Parenthood and certain state lawmakers are going for the nuclear option known as Assembly Bill 1671.
Courthouse News reports:
“The bill would criminalize publishing undercover video footage of “health care providers” and subject third parties, including journalists, to penalties for reporting and distributing the illegally recorded footage.Regardless of one’s stance on abortion, this proposed law is not a solution for anything, and would represent a politically-motivated evisceration of free speech rights. Such a law could and would be used to silence investigative journalism on many fronts beyond the issue of abortion.
Under AB 1671, a journalist receiving and posting footage from an anonymous source could be punished by the state as well as be opened up to potential civil lawsuits. Whistleblowers would not be exempt from the proposal either, regardless of how they obtained the illegal footage.
First-time offenders could be fined up to $2,500 while repeat offenders could face up to a year in prison.”
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