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    Digital Journalist's Legal Guide
    Tablet and mobile phone showing news online

    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.

    Reporter's Privilege

    This section covers the use of subpoenas to force journalists to disclose their confidential news sources and unpublished information. Shield laws exist in forty states; if a reporter isn't covered by a shield law, there may still be a constitutional privilege that helps protect sources and information. This section also covers official attempts to seize journalists' work product and documents without a warrant.

    Kansas high court allows reporter subpoena to stand

    Cristina Abello | Reporter's Privilege | Feature | February 3, 2010
    Cristina Abello
    Feature
    February 3, 2010

    The Kansas Supreme Court yesterday ruled that prosecutors may force Dodge City Globe reporter Claire O’Brien to testify about her news gathering activities and materials in a murder trial. 

    Without ordering a hearing in the matter, the court in a two-sentence order denied the paper’s request for relief and rejected all potential friend-of-the-court briefs in the case as “moot.”

    Student journalists subpoenaed in death penalty case

    Medill Innocence Project students seek protection under shield law
    Feature
    Page Number: 
    22
    Cristina Abello

    From the Winter 2010 issue of The News Media & The Law, page 22.

    Over the past decade, the work of Northwestern University journalism students has exonerated 11 wrongfully convicted defendants, appeared on the front page of The New York Times and The Washington Post, and been cited by the former governor of Illinois when he established a moratorium on executions in the state.

    The News Media and The Law, Winter 2010

    North Carolina newspaper editor vows to fight subpoena

    Nadia Tamez-Robledo | Reporter's Privilege | Quicklink | January 29, 2010
    Nadia Tamez-Robledo
    Quicklink
    January 29, 2010

    A North Carolina newspaper editor will fight a subpoena for his notes and testimony in an obstruction of justice case against a county sheriff, news@norman reported.

    FBI illegally obtained journalists' phone records

    Amanda Becker | Reporter's Privilege | Quicklink | January 21, 2010
    Amanda Becker
    Quicklink
    January 21, 2010

    The telephone records of journalists at The Washington Post and The New York Times were among those illegally obtained by the FBI between 2002 and 2006 by creating false terrorism emergencies and using other under-the-radar methods, The Washington Post reported.

    Kansas high court stays subpoena for reporter's testimony

    Amanda Becker | Reporter's Privilege | Quicklink | January 20, 2010
    Amanda Becker
    Quicklink
    January 20, 2010

    The Kansas Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily stayed a judge's order compelling a newspaper reporter's testimony about her sources and interview notes relating to a murder investigation, The Associated Press reported.

    Media organizations support Innocence Project's motion to quash

    Cristina Abello | Reporter's Privilege | Quicklink | January 11, 2010
    Cristina Abello
    Quicklink
    January 11, 2010

    Media organizations today urged an Illinois judge to block a criminal prosecutor’s subpoena for the notes and records from students in Medill's Innocence Project at Northwestern University.

    Judge rejects Kansas reporter's bid to delay giving testimony

    Amanda Becker | Reporter's Privilege | Quicklink | January 6, 2010
    Amanda Becker
    Quicklink
    January 6, 2010

    A judge has rejected a Kansas reporter's effort to delay being compelled to testify about her interview with a murder suspect, The Associated Press reported.

    Homeland Security withdraws subpoena to travel journalist

    Amanda Becker | Reporter's Privilege | Quicklink | January 4, 2010
    Amanda Becker
    Quicklink
    January 4, 2010

    The Department of Homeland Security has withdrawn the administrative subpoena it served to travel journalist Christopher Elliott after he published a new security directive issued by TSA on his personal website.

    TSA agents subpoena, visit home of second writer

    Amanda Becker | Reporter's Privilege | Quicklink | December 31, 2009
    Amanda Becker
    Quicklink
    December 31, 2009

    A representative from the Transportation Security Administration visited the home of a second blogger this week to serve a subpoeana seeking the source of a security directive that was posted on the blogger's Web site, Wired reported.

    Travel writer subpoenaed after publishing TSA security directive

    Amanda Becker | Reporter's Privilege | Quicklink | December 30, 2009
    Amanda Becker
    Quicklink
    December 30, 2009

    The author of a popular syndicated travel column was subpoenaed by the Department of Homeland Security after publishing a new security directive issued after the recent attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight into Detroit on Christmas Day.