WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel on Thursday approved legislation designed to protect reporters and the news media from having to reveal their confidential sources after narrowing the definition of a journalist and establishing which formats — traditional and online — provide news to people worldwide.

On a 13-5 vote, the Judiciary Committee cleared the way for the full Senate to consider the measure. The vote came just months after the disclosure that the Justice Department had secretly subpoenaed almost two months’ worth of telephone records for 21 phone lines used by reporters and editors for The Associated Press and secretly used a search warrant to obtain some emails of a Fox News journalist.