Everything online journalists need to protect their legal rights. This free resource culls from all Reporters Committee resources and includes exclusive content on digital media law issues.
A state shield law could finally get passed in Kansas this year, the Republican chair of the state senate’s Judiciary Committee told the Associated Press on Friday.
A federal shield law that would protect reporters from revealing confidential sources was re-introduced in Congress today.
The Free Flow of Information Act of 2009 is identical to the shield law that passed the House in the 110th Congress by a vote of 398 to 21. A similar bill was also approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 15 – 4, but died when the congressional session ended last year.
Reporter's Privilege | Quicklink | January 15, 2009
Quicklink
January 15, 2009
Attorney General nominee Eric Holder gave clues during Thursday’s confirmation hearing that he plans to veer away from the last eight years of Bush policy in its restrictiveness on press freedom issues.
A New Jersey appellate court reversed a lower court decision Friday that would have required an ex-New York Times reporter to name the confidential sources he used in a 2005 biography of
An Illinois newspaper is using the state shield law to fight a subpoena for the identities of some readers who commented anonymously on the paper’s Web site.
According to a Belleville News-Democrat report, the state attorney general wants the information for a grand jury hearing on a murder investigation.
An Oregon newspaper does not have to give up the identity of someone who commented anonymously on its website, a judge held this week, because the state shield law protects anonymous bloggers just as it does confidential sources.
A reporter who used a confidential source to report about a grand jury proceeding can keep her source’s identity a secret, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.
The high court ruled that the state shield law grants an absolute privilege to journalists, and protects their source’s identities from compelled disclosure in all cases – civil, criminal and grand jury proceedings.
Former USA Today reporter Toni Locy urged the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington on Thursday not to throw out her case seeking a reporter’s privilege to keep her sources confidential.
Steven Hatfill, the former Army scientist investigated in the 2001 anthrax attacks, is still battling with former USA Today reporter Toni Locy -- even after his name has been cleared and he’s been awarded a multimillion dollar settlement.
