Judith Miller Calls For Shield Laws For Journalists

HONG KONG (AFP) -- Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller on Thursday called on the US Congress to enact a federal shield law that would protect journalists from being forced to disclose their sources.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who was jailed for 85 days in 2005 after refusing to tell prosecutors which of her sources had outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, said the US was now shrouded in secrecy in the post-9/11 era.

A vast amount of information which had been accessible to the public was made confidential by the administration of US President George W. Bush, she said in a speech at the Foreign Correspondents' Club here.

"I have never seen such an abuse of secrecy in the name of national security since I arrived in Washington, DC, 35 years ago," said Miller, who specialises in covering bio-terrorism.

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