Bloggers, Journalists, Reporting and Privilege

The New York State Bar Association’s Bright Ideas journal (Vol. 22, No. 2) 17 (Fall 2013) has just published my essay about shield laws entitled, Bloggers, Journalists, Reporting and Privilege.  And now you can read it.

[ This is the article as it was republished in the New York State Bar Association Journal.  It was also subsequently republished in 31 Computer & Internet Lawyer 9 (March 2014).]

UPDATE: The case reported in this article in the New York Law Journal (registration required) raises a question I didn’t at all address in this article, but wish I had:  The extent to which one state’s press shield law (in this case, New York’s) protects a journalist from revealing her sources in another state (Colorado).  Frankly, it’s inconceivable to me that Colorado courts should be bound by a decision made in Albany regarding the extent of shield protection to be awarded journalists on the ground that they are “New York-based” — which, essentially, the reporter’s lawyer is arguing that all journalists are.

Is that an argument for a uniform federal standard?  If you like these laws, perhaps it is, though I’m not sure exactly what constitutional basis there would be to hamstring state courts’ powers through such a statute.

Originally posted 2013-10-01 13:37:54. Republished by Blog Post Promoter