Reporter's Privilege

Department of Justice attorneys have filed an unopposed motion to close to the public parts of the upcoming oral argument concerning the Espionage Act prosecution of former CIA analyst Jeffrey Sterling and the related subpoena of New York Times reporter James Risen.

Promises of confidentiality made to compile an oral history of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland must be upheld by the court to protect the participants, even though the British government says the records contain information about the murder of a mother of ten, according to parties fighting subpoenas in oral arguments before a federal appellate court yesterday.

A journalist who was subpoenaed to testify at an obscenity trial for an artist specializing in pornography, will no longer have to testify because the Department of Justice dropped the subpoena without explanation.

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.

The court could have compelled a reporter to testify as a witness in a patient's lawsuit against her plastic surgeons who handed over her partially nude photographs to a Missouri newspaper, a federal court of appeals has ruled.

Update (12/14/2011): U.S. Judge James Zagel has ruled that Chicago Tribune reporter Annie Sweeney will not be compelled to turn over her notes regarding a juror in the felony trial of William Cellini, the Tribune reports.