Last week I noted that the Texas Senate had approved the "Free Flow of Information Act" and sent the bill to the Texas House of Representatives. Well, that was short lived, as the bill has now died in the Texas House.
According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the bill
was derailed on a technicality last week when Republican Rep. Debbie Riddle raised a technical objection after only a few minutes of debate. "At that point, the bill was effectively dead because it could not be recommitted to the committee to fix it and send it back out again," said Michael Schneider, director of programs of the Texas Association of Broadcasters. "If we had the bill over to the House earlier, we would have just made the change, but there was no time."
The Texas Legislature only meets every other year (a good job if you can get it), so a reporter's shield bill cannot be reconsidered in Texas until 2009. Look for our follow-up post then.
