Learn more about the recent Kansas newsroom raid & SPLC's legal guides to help student journalists get familiar with laws about police raids.
Kansas newsroom raid raises red flags for student press freedom
Tag: reporter’s privilege
Can student journalists claim reporter’s privilege?
Q: Are student journalists allowed to claim reporter’s privilege to protect the identity of their sources? A: State reporter’s privilege laws allow journalists to withhold confidential newsgathering materials from the parties in a criminal investigation or a civil lawsuit. In most states, the shield applies to anyone who regularly gathers and distributes news to the public… Continue reading Can student journalists claim reporter’s privilege?
Searching professor's house for guns based on Facebook joke was unreasonable, appeals court rules
Evidence seized in an unlawful newsroom search led police to discover pot in a professor's home. But the illegally obtained evidence can't be used at the professor's drug trial.
Protections inconsistent for student journalists who withhold names of sources
Most journalists avoid using anonymous sources, with many schools discouraging it in nearly all situations. But student journalists often find that the only way to attack controversial or sensitive — but significant — issues in schools, is to turn to anonymous sources.
Massachusetts considers reporter's privilege bill that would include high school, college journalists
Massachusetts is considering proposed legislation that if enacted, would establish a reporter’s privilege for the state’s high school, college and professional journalists.
Federal shield bill clears Senate committee with protection for college journalists
A federal shield bill that would afford journalists and their sources greater protection passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The bill, called the Free Flow of Information Act, will now go before the full Senate.
Subpoenas served against three Calif. student journalists withdrawn
Subpoenas served against three high school journalists by the family of a classmate who killed herself were withdrawn earlier this week.
Congressional shield-law debate risks consigning student journalists to second-class legal status
There is exuberance -- cautious exuberance, to be sure, among those who've been to the threshold too many times -- that, as a byproduct of the Obama administration's shameful mistreatment of journalists, Congress will soon enact a reporter's privilege that protects journalists against demands to disclose their confidences.Largely lost in that exuberance is the vast distinction between competing versions of the "Free Flow of Information Act of 2013" in the House and Senate -- a distinction that could literally mean the difference between prison and freedom for student journalists.The reporter's privilege (or "reporter shield") enables a journalist to refuse to give testimony or surrender unpublished information in connection with a police investigation or legal proceeding.
Hawaii risks turning one of America’s best reporter’s privilege laws into one of the worst
Urged on by the state attorney general, a Hawaii Senate committee is proposing to drastically narrow the state's 2008 reporter shield statute, putting the ability of student journalists to protect confidential sources at risk.In amendments approved Wednesday, a Senate committee pared back the scope of the reporter's privilege so that it would benefit only journalists "professionally associated" with traditional news organizations.The current Hawaii statute enables two classes of people to protect their unpublished material and the identity of their sources if confronted with a demand in connection with a legal proceeding:(1) "[A] journalist or newscaster presently or previously employed by or otherwise professionally associated with any newspaper or magazine or any digital versiona thereof."(2) A person who can demonstrate by "clear and convincing evidence" that he or she "has regularly and materially participated in the reporting or publishing of news or information of substantial public interest for the purpose of dissemination to the general public" or that he or she occupies a position "materially similar or identical to that of a journalist or newscaster."It's that second class of protected people that Attorney General David M.
Auburn U. reporter subpoenaed in criminal trial, placed under gag order
Andrew Yawn got more than he bargained for when he started workthis summer at Auburn University’s TheAuburn Plainsman – he was served with a witness subpoena and placed under agag order Wednesday over a story he broke the previous day.