Jana Winter Voices Support for Bill Seeking to Strengthen Colorado Shield Laws

By Merrill Knox 

jana winterFoxNews.com reporter Jana Winter has submitted a written statement of support to the Colorado Senate Judiciary committee for a bill that would strengthen the state’s media shield laws.

The proposed legislation, which was inspired by Winter’s battle with the Colorado courts to protect her sources in the Aurora movie theater shooting case, will have its first hearing today. Winter writes:

Over the last year, I have had the privilege of getting to know many of my journalism colleagues in Colorado, and I have been deeply inspired by their talent, their courage, and their zealous dedication to serving the public good. Yet my Colorado colleagues do not have nearly the same protection for their newsgathering under the current version of Colorado’s Press Shield Law as I do in New York. As a result, their efforts to engage in investigative reporting are necessarily stymied — and when journalists are prevented from doing their jobs, it is the public who suffers. When knowledgeable sources are unwilling to speak out because they fear that one day journalists could face jail time for keeping a promise of confidentiality, public debate becomes uninformed and the resulting public policies are built on unstable foundations.

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