Do student journalists have a privilege to refuse to testify?

Like that for non-student journalists, the answer is "it depends," namely on the state in which the student attends school and which court, federal or state, issued the subpoena. In many states with media shield laws, the definition of a "covered person" entitled to invoke the law's protections is likely broad enough to encompass student journalistic work, according to the Student Press Law Center, which provides a comprehensive state-by-state guide to the reporter's privilege for student media. For example, a Montana court used its state shield law in 2001 to protect a journalism student who prepared and disseminated a video documentary of confrontations between police and citizens. In other states -- including West Virginia, which in April 2011 became the 40th state, along with the District of Columbia, to enact a shield law -- the statutory language specifically covers student journalists. 

Moreover, the protection has been explicitly applied to students in cases arising in federal court, where the privilege is rooted in the First Amendment or common law and not derived from legislation. Like those employing the von Bulow test, these courts extended the protection after determining that the students were gathering information in the course of newsgathering activities with the intent to disseminate the information to the public.