2nd UPDATE:Senators, White House Reach Deal On Media-Shield Bill

The White House reached a compromise with lawmakers Friday on legislation that would protect journalists in some circumstances from being ordered to reveal their confidential sources.

U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Arlen Specter (D., Pa.), sponsors of the legislation, said the compromise includes new provisions that further protect national security interests, which had been a concern for the Obama administration.

Specter said the White House played a "decisive role" in working out the compromise. He said the bill is "a major improvement over current procedures where journalists have been threatened, fined and jailed for appropriately protecting sources."

White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said the Obama administration is the first in history to support media-shield legislation.

"We expect this proposal to move forward with bipartisan support, and the president looks forward to signing it into law," LaBolt said.

The bill provides that, in cases of leaked classified information, a reporter isn't protected from revealing confidential sources when the information would help the government prevent or mitigate an act of terrorism or other acts that would significantly harm national security.

An earlier version of the bill would have allowed federal judges to balance the public's interest in newsgathering against the government's interest in protecting national security.

In cases that don't involve national-security threats, the bill instructs that a reporter can legally protect a source if a federal judge, after weighing several factors, finds that ordering the reporter to reveal the source would harm the public's interest in the free flow of news and information.

Lucy Dalglish, the executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and a participant in the legislative negotiations, said the compromise was a solid one.

Dalglish said the national security exemption wasn't as broad as the White House was seeking and only applies in cases where the leaking of information implicates a future threat to security.

The legislation places a high legal burden on reporters seeking to protect sources, especially in criminal cases, "but right now we have nothing," she said. "This gives us a chance to show why it's important to protect a source."

Dalglish said the law likely would have aided reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle who were threatened with jail time for not revealing their sources in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, or Balco, steroids scandal that implicated several star athletes.

Dalglish said she wasn't sure whether the bill would have protected former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who went to prison for refusing to reveal her source in the Valerie Plame leak affair.

Schumer said the compromise would allow the bill to move more quickly through the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate.

The House passed a version of the legislation in March. More than 70 media organizations have endorsed the legislation, including News Corp. (NWS, NWSA), which owns Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of this newswire.

-By Brent Kendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9222; brent.kendall@dowjones.com

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