THE HILL: New rules require Justice to report on journalist subpoenas.
The Justice Department announced new guidelines effective immediately that will require it to issue annual reports detailing every time it tries to get a search warrant or subpoena a journalist.
The new guidelines will also require Justice to notify news organizations about any subpoena the department sought that pertained to reporting by their employees. A decision to keep the subpoena secret would have to be made only by the attorney general and could be kept under wraps for a maximum of 90 days under the new rules.
The new procedures were announced in response to outrage over Justice’s seizure of Associated Press phone records and its spying on Fox New reporter James Rosen.
While I was in New York, I chatted with some of the media folks who were negotiating with DoJ over this. But I worry that bloggers and independent journalists won’t get the benefit of this deal.