Wisconsin

In the first ruling under Wisconsin’s new shield law, a judge denied the state Department of Justice’s request to subpoena three journalists who reported on a farmer’s alleged criminal conduct .

The justice department was unable to show that the information they seek is unobtainable from other sources, as required by the 2010 law, said Sauk County Judge Guy Reynolds. But Reynolds, who ruled from the bench Thursday, added that he would reconsider the subpoenas if the state's other witnesses contradict the journalists' reports.

Campaign staffers for presidential candidate Mitt Romney barred a local radio reporter from covering a Republican Wisconsin senator’s stump speech Wednesday on behalf of Romney because of the actions of one of the station’s on-air personalities.

Dylan Brogan, a reporter for WTDY Radio in Madison, was assigned to cover the appearance of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center. Johnson’s appearance was billed in a press release as a talk about Romney’s plan to grow the economy and strengthen the middle class.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled yesterday that authorities cannot charge the public for redaction costs under its public records law.

The decision rejected an attempt by the City of Milwaukee Police Department to charge redaction costs for providing records in two requests filed by reporters at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A Milwaukee Fox news station and a number of journalism organizations are demanding today that all charges be dropped against a veteran photojournalist whose First Amendment rights they say were violated when police arrested him while filming a house fire outside of the police perimeter.

Clint Fillinger, a photojournalist with Fox6 Now for 45 years, was arrested for resisting and obstructing police on Sunday. The 68-year-old, who sustained some minor injuries when he fell to the ground during his arrest, is expected to return to work by the end of the week.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sued the Milwaukee Police Department Thursday in a dispute over fees and delays under Wisconsin's open records law, according to court documents.

Reporters Gina Barton and Ben Poston claim they were subjected to excessive fees and unreasonable delay while conducting an independent examination of department crime statistics beginning in May 2010.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court limited the scope of the state’s open records law last week when it ruled that several teachers’ personal e-mail messages, though sent on school-owned computers from work e-mail addresses, were not public records.

When Wisconsin investigative reporter Richard Moore requested records from the state's Department of Natural Resources last year that related to a shoreland zoning issue, he did not expect to uncover a controversy about the agency’s handling of public records fees in general.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law a reporter's shield bill protecting confidential sources and newsgathering materials.

Wisconsin's Whistleblower Protection Act, the 39th such law in the nation, provides journalists with an absolute privilege to withhold the identity of confidential sources and a qualified privilege to protect from disclosure unpublished newsgathering information.