In light of the recent uproar over WikiLeaks releasing controversial documents related to the Afghanistan War, congressional supporters of the Federal Shield Bill are updating the legislation to exclude Web sites that leak secret documents, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The committee revealed on its website:

In a reaction to foreign website Wikileaks' publication of 75,000 Afghanistan war documents, Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein are now drafting an amendment to exclude such websites from the pending legislation. However, it is not clear that a U.S. federal subpoena could even be served on the website, which bases its operations in Iceland, Sweden and other locations.

“Under the bill, if the federal government could somehow claim jurisdiction over WikiLeaks and issue a subpoena to find out more information about a source, WikiLeaks would not be able to quash the subpoena as there are broad national security exceptions to the protection,” said Paul Boyle, Senior Vice President of the Newspaper Association of America.

The bill, known as the Free Flow of Information Act, would allow a reporter to have a court quash a federal subpoena for source information or materials, with some exceptions. A few senators from both political parties, including Feinstein, had repeatedly expressed reservations about the legislation and how its provisions applied to leakers of classified information.

“Senate sponsors want to shore this up by stating it is not their intention to cover WikiLeaks-type websites that simply publish raw data without editorial oversight,” Boyle said.