II. Authority for and source of the right

Alaska's appellate courts have not had occasion to rule definitively on the existence or scope of a news reporter's privilege. The privilege has been asserted, and acknowledged, in a number of trial court cases, and in virtually all of these, the press interest has been represented by the author of this outline. There is no explicit reference to a reporter's privilege in the Alaska Constitution. There are several Alaska Supreme Court opinions interpreting Alaska's analogue to the First Amendment, Article I, section 5, of the state constitution, as providing greater protection for freedom of expression than its federal counterpart, though never in this context. The state constitution, therefore, should always be cited as an alternate basis for the privilege to preserve this issue. There is a state statute that addresses a reporter's privilege, see AS 09.25.300 -- .390, and through Evidence Rule 501, court rules recognize and implement this and other statutory privileges. The statute's substantive provisions do not provide particularly strong protection, but it contains some useful procedural provisions and should be cited for this reason. While the statute is sometimes noted, the principal source of legal authority that has been relied upon in asserting, and recognizing, a privilege in Alaska courts to date has been the qualified constitutional privilege under the First Amendment recognized by the majority in Branzburg, and subsequent cases.