Currently thirty-two states and the District of Columbia have statutory shield laws. These states include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee (citations to the various state statutes are listed below). A number of state courts have also recognized a privilege based on their state constitutions, common law, or the First Amendment.<\/p>\n
The various state statutes range in scope, from broad protections that provide an absolute privilege, to more narrow qualified privileges. Most state shield laws provide a qualified privilege, protecting source information in judicial proceedings, unless the compelling party can establish that the information is (i) relevant to matter at hand; (ii) unavailable by other means; and (iii) that a compelling need exists for the information.<\/p>\n
While the majority of states protect a confidential source\u2019s identity, some states also protect a unpublished notes, outtakes, or work product. A small minority of states further protect a reporter\u2019s personal observations. States also differ in who is covered by the privilege, and under what situations it applies. For example, many states limit coverage only to persons are professionally engaged in dissemination of information to the public, while other states include freelancers, authors, electronic publishers, or educators. Some states further require that, in order to qualify as a member of the news media, evidence or records must be kept documenting actual publication or broadcast, especially when radio or television media are concerned. For a detailed examination of state shield laws, see Journalists\u2019 Privilege to Withhold Information in Judicial and Other Proceedings: State Shield Statutes (Congressional Research Service, March 2005)<\/a>.<\/p>\n The first state shield law was enacted in Maryland on April 2, 1896, in response to the imprisonment of a Baltimore Sun<\/em> reporter for refusing to reveal a confidential source to a grand jury. Act of Apr. 2, 1896, ch. 249, 1896 Md. Laws 437 (codified at MD. CODE ANN., CTS. & JUD. PROC. \u00a7 9-112 (LexisNexis 2002)).<\/p>\n If you are interested in the specific statutory provisions for each state, here are the cites: ALA. CODE \u00a7 12-21-142 (LexisNexis 2005); ALASKA STAT. \u00a7 09.25.310 (2004); ARIZ. REV. STAT. ANN. \u00a7 12-2237 (2003); CAL. EVID. CODE \u00a7 1070(a) (West 1995); COLO. REV. STAT. \u00a7 13-90-119 (2005); Act of June 6, 2006, No. 06-140, 2006 Conn. Pub. Acts 140 (effective Oct. 1, 2006); DEL. CODE ANN. tit. 10, \u00a7\u00a7 4320\u201326 (1999); D.C. CODE \u00a7\u00a7 16-4701 to -4704 (2001); FLA. STAT. \u00a7 90.5015 (2005); GA. CODE ANN. \u00a7 24-9-30 ILL. COMP. STAT. ANN. 5\/8-901 to -909 (West 2003); IND. CODE ANN. \u00a7\u00a7 34-46-4-1 to -2 (LexisNexis 1998); KY. REV. STAT. ANN. \u00a7 421.100 (LexisNexis 2005); LA. REV. STAT. ANN. \u00a7\u00a7 45:1451 to :1459 (1999); MD. CODE ANN., CTS. & JUD. PROC. \u00a7 9-112 (LexisNexis 2002); MICH. COMP. LAWS \u00a7 767.5a (2006); MINN. STAT. \u00a7 595.021\u2013.024 (2004); MONT. CODE ANN. \u00a7\u00a7 26-1-902 to -903 (2005); NEB. REV. STAT. \u00a7\u00a7 20-144 to -147 (1997); NEV. REV. STAT. \u00a7 49.275 (2005); N.J. STAT. ANN. \u00a7 2A:84A-21 (West 1994); N.M. STAT. ANN. \u00a7 38-6-7 (West 2003), invalidated by Ammerman v. Hubbard Broad., Inc., 551 P.2d 1354, 1359 (N.M. 1976); N.Y. CIV. RIGHTS LAW \u00a7 79-h (McKinney 1992); N.C. GEN. STAT. \u00a7 8-53.11 (2005); N.D CENT. CODE \u00a7 31-01-06.2 (1996); OHIO REV. CODE ANN. \u00a7\u00a7 2739.11\u2013.12 (LexisNexis 2000); OKLA. STAT. ANN. tit. 12, \u00a7 2506 (West 1993); OR. REV. STAT. \u00a7\u00a7 44.520\u2013.530 (2005); 42 PA. CONS. STAT. ANN. \u00a7 5942 (West 2000); R.I. GEN. LAWS \u00a7\u00a7 9-19.1-1 to -3 (1997); S.C. CODE ANN. \u00a7 19-11-100 (1976); TENN. CODE ANN. \u00a7 24-1-208 (2000).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Currently thirty-two states and the District of Columbia have statutory shield laws. These states include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee (citations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":697,"featured_media":0,"parent":4,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/beware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/beware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/beware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/beware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/697"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/beware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/beware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/beware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/beware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}