The proposed federal shield law S. 448, or the “Free Flow of Information Act of 2009″, is supposed to finally give journalists a federal law that protects the right to grant sources anonymity without the fear of  subpoenas.

But another thing the bill does is define who is covered by it. According to S. 448, a journalist is somebody who is engaged in:

the regular gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting, or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public.

In other words, a journalist is somebody who does journalism. The interesting thing about this definition is that it does not mention working for a “media” organization anywhere. That means bloggers, student journalists and freelancers are also covered.

The SPJ announced its support of the current version of this bill yesterday in a press release.

Leaders of the Society of Professional Journalists welcome the compromise the Obama administration, senators and news organizations reached on a federal shield law that would protect journalists, their sources and the public’s right to know. Although SPJ does not believe S. 448 is a perfect bill, the Society’s leaders carefully examined the proposed legislation, and on behalf of its more than 8,000 members, have decided to support the protections granted to journalists.

SPJ now urges the Senate Judiciary Committee to pass S. 448 quickly so that the full Senate can consider the piece of legislation that is vitally important to a free and independent press.