#5 Reporter's Privilege

    Reporter's Privilege Cases

 Reporter's Privilege can benefit the reporters in a lot of ways and also can land them in grave danger. Reporter's privilege in the United States (also journalist's privilege, newsman's privilege, or press privilege), is a "reporter's protection under constitutional or statutory law, from being compelled to testify about confidential information or sources." It may be described in the US as the qualified (limited) First Amendment or statutory right many jurisdictions have given to journalists in protecting their confidential sources from discovery (Reporter's Privilege Wiki). The First Amendment by law protects reporters from soliciting private information or disclosing their sources. Reporters have exclusive insight on a story with immense drama or attention to it. Having this source of information that no else can have puts reporters in the limelight for trouble. The thing that  gains them privilege is called shield laws. Shield law is defined as A shield law is legislation designed to protect reporters' privilege. This privilege involves the right of news reporters to refuse to testify as to information and/or sources of information obtained during the news gathering and dissemination process (Shield Law Wiki). 

    Only 40 of 50 states use shield laws. In a way, shield law does a lot of good because it protects the reporters but also can be harmful if a law enforcement can't make an arrest or charge a criminal for a crime. Among the ones that don't enact shield laws are Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Hawaii, Missouri, Virginia, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Even though these states did not enact shield laws, they still have regulations that protect journalists due to the First Amendment. I will discuss two states that have cases dealing with shield laws and one that doesn't. 

    The first state is the District of Columbia. District of Columbia is one of the 40 states that have shield laws. The District of Columbia has one of the broadest shield law protections in the country. In Prentice v. McPhilemy, 27 Med. L. Rep. 2377, 2380 (D.C. 1999) the DC Superior Court found that a book author, who did not live in DC or collect the information for his book in DC, but nevertheless published it there, could avail himself of the DC statutory privilege. The court also said that the “free flow of information” act was not limited to just the “fast paced news media.” The statute’s protections extend to “any person who is or has been employed by the news media in a news gathering or news disseminating capacity.” The court seemed less concerned with the author’s employment and more focused on whether he was “in the pursuit of professional activities (Splc). This case meant that even the author didn't reside in D.C. even so not from there was protected by shield laws for conducting professional information and therefore was there for his job. 

    The next state is New Hampshire. New Hampshire is one of 10 states that does not use shield law but do use sort of First Amendment protection for journalists. New Hampshire does not have a statutory shield law, but courts in the state have interpreted the state constitution to assert a similar privilege. In New Hampshire v. Siel, 444 A.2d 499 (N.H. 1982), the court approved a lower court ruling that two reporters for a college newspaper could assert a qualified privilege against disclosing the identity of confidential sources in a criminal proceeding. The defendant, who was convicted of murder, tried to force the reporters to disclose their sources of information. The court ruled that the reporters were protected from disclosure because the defendant did not show that the confidential information would affect the guilty verdict if released. The Supreme Court of New Hampshire approved the lower court’s ruling without explicitly noting that the reporters worked for a student newspaper. Even so, the decision shows that the state is willing to extend a qualified privilege to student reporters based on the state constitution’s guarantee of freedom of the press (Splc). Furthermore reporter's privileges exist for a reason. Whether it's from a shield law or any type of government protection, reporters are covered no matter what unless it directly involves criminal activity. I think in near future the remaining states that don't enact shield laws will appeal to have them set in motion soon.