November 2009

Senate supporters of a bill protecting a reporter's right to protect confidential sources in federal court said Friday they've reached a compromise with the Obama administration and media groups that gives the government authority to override those rights in certain national security cases. Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY) said the agreement "strikes the right balance between national security concerns and the public's right to know." He said it would preserve a strong protection for reporters trying to protect sources while making sure the government can do its job of protecting citizens. The original bill centered on the idea that a balancing test should be applied under which a federal judge would weigh the public's right to know versus national security claims made by the government. The administration wanted to eliminate that balancing test in many cases involving terrorism and other security cases. Under the compromise, the balancing test would be eliminated in classified leak cases where the government can show that disclosure of a source's identity is necessary to prevent or mitigate an act of terrorism or substantial harm to the national security. But the government would also have to provide specific facts: it could not make a national security claim and then withhold most of the details. The balancing test would be in order for cases not involving classified leaks, but in criminal cases the burden would be on the journalist to show clear and convincing evidence that guarding the anonymity of sources is in the public interest.

The body in charge of assigning the world's Internet users their online addresses on Friday said it had agreed to allow the use of any of the world's scripts, no longer just the Latin alphabet. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which approved the change at a meeting in Seoul, said in a statement it could lead to a dramatic rise in the number of Internet users. The program will be rolled out in stages, starting November 16. Initially, it will allow internationalized domain names (IDNs) using scripts such as Chinese, Korean or Arabic for the country code designators at the end of an address name. Eventually, the use of IDNs will be expanded to all types of Internet address names.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration will be collecting large amounts of data through the Census Bureau that they would like to make more broadly available. NTIA has been able to work with the Census Bureau to add questions to the Current Population Survey as a supplement.

The following five questions are going to be asked:

• Do you/does anyone in this household use the Internet at any location?
• Who is that?
• Do you/does anyone in this household connect to the Internet from home?
• Do you currently access the Internet at home using dial-up or broadband?
• What is the main reason that you do not have high-speed Internet access at home?

[Commentary] Although the consumer electronics industry is the sector of the American economy that has benefited most from the transition to digital television broadcasting, the Consumer Electronics Association has implicitly endorsed a Federal Communications Commission proposal to take back most of the broadcast spectrum so that it can auction it off to wireless broadband providers. No doubt CEA members see billions more to be made in selling various pocket-size gizmos if wireless operators can get their hands on more spectrum. But Jessell thinks there's more is at work here. By getting out in front on this, CEA may be trying to win points with Democratic policymakers, pretty much the only ones that count these days. Jessell gossips that the White House is behind the FCC on this.