Richardson Amendment
https:// www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/congress/1996_cr/h960522h.htm
SEC. 306. PROHIBITION ON USING JOURNALISTS AS AGENTS OR ASSETS.
An element of the Intelligence Community may not use as an agent or asset for the purposes of collecting intelligence any individual who–
(1) is authorized by contract or by the issuance of press credentials to represent himself or herself, either in the United States or abroad, as a correspondent of a United States news media organization; or
(2) is officially recognized by a foreign government as a representative of a United States media organization.
Under current CIA regulations, journalists are not to be used as intelligence agents or assets. The regulations do, however, permit the prohibition to be waived when the Director of Central Intelligence determines that national security interests compel that result. My amendment would codify the prohibition without providing the waiver authority. Adoption of the amendment will ensure that neither the independence guaranteed to the press by the Constitution nor the lives of journalists are endangered by blurring the distinction between reporters as commentators on government and reporters as instruments of government. As the New York Times editorialized on March 18, `If the United States Government does not honor that distinction, who anywhere will believe that it really exists?'