PRESS RELEASE New Hampshire · June 22, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Reporters Committee asks court to apply reporter's privilege to Web site
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is urging the New Hampshire Supreme Court to protect the identity of a confidential source used by an online news Web site that covers the mortgage industry.
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In a friend-of-the-court brief filed jointly by the Reporters Committee and the Citizen Media Law Project in The Mortgage Specialists v. Implode Explode Heavy Industries, the organizations argued that news Web site Implode-O-Meter, which aggregates news coverage of the mortgage industry, should have the same First Amendment protections as traditional media.
"There's no question that Implode-O-Meter was doing journalism when it published the news about a state investigation into the morgage business," said Reporters Committee Executive Director Lucy A. Dalglish. "The Web site should be granted the same privileges as any other news organization when it comes to protecting its confidential sources."
Implode-O-Meter published a story on its Web site detailing a state investigation into the mortgage company Mortgage Specialists. As part of its reporting, it published a state document obtained through a confidential source that detailed the investigation.
Mortgage Specialists sued and asked the Superior Court in New Hampshire for an injunction that would prohibit Implode-O-Meter from republishing the document and would order the site to reveal the name of its source. The court granted that injunction.
In the brief filed on behalf of Implode-O-Meter, the Reporters Committee argued that the court should have applied a qualified reporter’s privilege before ordering Implode-O-Meter to reveal its source.
“Given the high public value of ML-Implode’s reporting," the brief argued, "this case presents an opportunity for the New Hampshire Supreme Court to further define the scope of the reporter’s privilege in New Hampshire as it applies to Internet journalists. The qualified reporter’s privilege, which has been used to protect confidential sources used by traditional journalists, must be applied to the site in order to further the rights of a free press that both the federal and New Hampshire constitutions protect."
The brief also argued that the Superior Court’s injunction prohibiting Implode-O-Meter from republishing the document was an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.
— Posted at 5:23 pm
Comments: (3)
Comment by CS, Tue, Jun 23, 10:13am
It's obscene that corporate America can abuse the legal system to try to silence those who tell the truth. If the mainstream media wasn't so beholden to corporations, the truth about the housing bubble and related fraud would've been in mainstream news and people would not have been duped into overpaying for houses, with toxic loans. Then we would not be in this economic mess, with so many people out of work. Our economy was being based on a Ponzi scheme, and it's a shame that everyone in this country didn't know about and read sites like Implode, in time to avert this mess.
Comment by NLS, Tue, Jun 23, 11:37am
Well said CS. This whole real estate scheme from builders to realtors, lenders, and Wall Street bundlers, is likely the biggest ponzi scheme ever and the MSM is still covering it up. They still claim Bernie Madoff pulled off the biggest ponzi scheme ever. The Chamber of Commerce and their corporate members want tort reform so the little guy has no recourse, but they don't hesitate to file frivolous law suits to keep the truth about their activities from being told.
CNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, FOX -- all helped the real estate ponzi scheme to work by being cheerleaders for the real estate industry. If they had reported the truth early on like Implode and other on line sites did we wouldn't be in the worst recession in decades and tens of thousands of people would not have lost their homes with more to come.
Comment by SB, Tue, Jun 23, 4:09pm
I'm glad you have a reporter's privilege in New Hampshire.
We don't in Utah, so SLAPP suits are quite chilling.
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