here he is, greg leslie. [applause] >> thank you, and i'm happy to be here to support james rizon and encourage the department of justice to stop pressuring him to testify. where been actively involved in this case from the start and we have been working with the department on reform of its own guidelines regarding media subpoenas. while that certainly can feel like a sisyphean task, it is critical to engage of the government on these issues, even incremental progress is something. ultimately, threats like these from the federal government must the addressed by enactment of a thatngful shield law recognizes that reporters need to be independent of the judicial system, not because they are above the law, or because they want to avoid the burden of participating in the legal system, but because journalism needs that independence to truly help hold the government accountable to the people. the reporters committee was founded in 1970 over this very issue. addressed to reporters from subpoenas that led to the bran

i would like to now introduce greg leslie. director legal defense for freedom of the press.he has been an attorney since 1994 there and served as the legal director since 2000. he supervises the journalism hotline services and is regularly interviewed by journalists on law topics. he has served a lot of positions, a member of the aba fair trial and free press task force, and many other positions. before entering law school he worked as a research director for washington business and political magazine, and here he is, mr. leslie. [applause] thank you, and i happy to be here to support james risen and to encourage the department of justice to stop its efforts to compel and to testify. at the reporters committee, we have been actively involved in this case from the start, and we have been working with the department perform of its own guidelines regarding media subpoenas. while that can feel like a sisyphean task, it is critical to engage with the government on these issues. even incremental progress is something. but ultimately, threats like these from the federal government

. >> i'm leslie fine one of the owns thanks for taking the time i know i anybody exhausted before greg talks i want to give some human contact you've family is a continuous ownership since our house as evolved it is far more modify nearly 3 years ago we begin the process expanding and morenoing the sacrificing space for our family it's hard to balance the growing family with the will neighborhood personality we've simpleminded our plans to the neighborhood we've had ad hoc and scheduled with the neighborhood our architect has had 57 redesigns we've got a close-knit street we've met with every he neighborhood and advances the hearing centered around the drawings to my knowledge everyone approves the project you'll see a large envelope of letters both the neighbors up and down the street one of them opposed our project and now revokely is support working on the design changes meant to be address their concerns we've spent a lot of time working with the planning department and i won't glow the variances. as parties discussions the project has evolved this our current home in a photograph