Shield Law

Journalists in Hawaii may receive protection from being forced  to reveal confidential sources, recordings and notes if Congress passes any one of three proposed shield bills working their way through the state legislature.

An Ohio newspaper is fighting two subpoenas requiring one of its reporters to testify in the trials of seven defendants accused of drug trafficking.

The Mount Vernon News filed two motions on Friday in support of its reporter, Anton Hepler. The first asks the court to require the prosecutor to show why Helper needs to testify and the other responds to the prosecutor’s threat to get a court order to ban Helper from watching the trial.

Reporters in Utah are now protected by a shield law -- actually a Supreme Court rule, because the state's constitution gives the courts the authority in this area.

Roberto Lima, editor of the Brazilian (N.J.) Voice, filed suit against the Newark police department on Tuesday, charging that police violated his constitutional right to free speech and the state’s shield law. 

Prosecutors are appealing a Minnesota appellate court ruling holding that a reporter did not have to turn over unpublished notes of an interview with a man who killed two police officers and took his own life after a standoff one year ago.

An appeals court in Minnesota held on Monday that a reporter did not have to turn over his unpublished notes from an interview with a man who killed two police officers and took his own life after a standoff one year ago.

The Utah State Supreme Court is currently considering joining 33 other states in providing its journalists with a shield law to help resist court subpoenas. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that critics have attacked the rule, which requires judges to apply a balancing test of varying standards depending on the type of information requested, as overprotective of journalists.

The City of Seattle withdrew subpoenas to three investigative reporters seeking the identity of several confidential sources. When news of the subpoenas spread, critics were quick to attack city attorney Thomas Carr — the ironic head of the state’s Sunshine Committee — for subpoenaing the reporters to identify sources as part of the city’s defense against a defamation suit from a former police officer.

The Seattle Times reports that three of the paper’s reporters could launch the first test of Washington’s shield law.

Seattle’s city attorney subpoenaed the reporters to ascertain the identity of confidential sources who provided information for a series of articles covering an investigation into police misconduct.

The Santa Barbara Independent reports that Superior Court Judge Brian Hill found photographer Paul Wellman in contempt of court for failing to turn over photographs subpoenaed in the murder trial of 14-year-old Ricardo Juarez.

As we have said earlier, this seems to be nothing more than a fishing expedition by defense attorney Karen Atkins.