Shield Law

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.

Documentary filmmakers are fighting a subpoena that would require them to hand over outtakes and notes, claiming that they are protected under New York's shield law.

The U.S. government announced it will not subpoena journalists as witnesses in the prosecution of a former intelligence officer who allegedly leaked classified information.

The University of California Berkeley Police Department has settled with an independent photographer who sued the department after he was arrested and had his photographs confiscated while covering a protest in 2009. As part of the $162,500 settlement, the department has also agreed to change its policies towards the media and train officers about journalists' legal protections.

In an attempt to "deter and detect" officials leaking information to news media organizations, the head of the country's intelligence community unveiled new measures on Monday, including lie detector tests and inspector general investigations, for preventing unauthorized disclosures.

A New Jersey judge ruled once again that a blogger is not protected under the state's shield law, rejecting her latest claim that she was writing a nonfiction book.

The state Supreme Court ruled last year that Washington private investigator Shellee Hale could not assert the shield law in a 2008 defamation suit against her and remanded the case to the trial court.

A Texas state judge recently ordered a local website publisher to turn over e-mail messages and other newsgathering materials, finding she did not qualify as a journalist under the state's shield law.

A former reporter for The Wall Street Journal is protected from testifying in a lawsuit between the financial firm Goldman Sachs and a former client, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City (2nd Cir.) ruled yesterday.

Writers for a technology blog that published leaked photos of an unreleased Motorola Droid smartphone do not qualify as a reporters for purposes of Illinois' shield law, and so the blog must disclose the identity of a source, a state judge has ruled.

A Montana blogger has been ordered to pay $2.5 million in defamation damages after a federal judge said she would have to be working for a mainstream media organization in order to qualify for protections afforded journalists.

The judgment against Crystal Cox, a self-proclaimed investigative blogger, arose from an allegedly defamatory statement about Obsidian Finance Group, LLC, and its senior principal, Kevin D. Padrick. The statement was posted on Cox's website bankruptcycorruption.com.