Attorney General Holder: Journalists Won't Be Jailed For Doing Their Jobs

Attorney General Eric Holder told journalists that as long as he is on the job, no journalist will go to jail for doing his or her job.

That came in a meeting between Attorney General Holder, deputy attorney general James Cole, and other DOJ officials, and members of the news media and the representatives to talk about recent revisions to Justice's guidelines on government information-gathering from journalists.

During the meeting, according to Justice, journalists asked DOJ to reconsider some of the language announced in February, with a focus on the scope of newsgathering activities covered by the guidelines.

In essence, the change makes the default setting having to give notice to news media of data collection unless there is an affirmative showing that to do so would threaten the integrity of the investigation, risk grave harm to national security or pose an imminent risk to life and limb. DOJ also modified search warrant policies so that journalist work product cannot be sought under the "suspect" exception unless the journalist is the focus of the criminal investigation. Attorney General Holder has to approve any search warrants and court orders directed to members of the news media.