Skip to main content

5- Reporter's Privilege

 

Lack of Shield Law in States

Reporter's Privilege is the right not have to testify or disclose sources of information in both state and federal court. The reason behind this is that journalists have a limited First Amendment right not reveal confidential news. News stories and journalists rely on the content of confidential sources to write stories, specifically those that deal with matters of public importance. According to the Oxford dictionary, Shield Law is the law that protects witnesses from revealing their confidential sources in court. Due to the lack of federal shield law, a 48 of the 50 states have passed their own shield laws. Wyoming and Hawaii, on the other hand, has yet to pass this law. As recently as 2021, a proposed shield law was not passed in Wyoming.

Hawaii previously had an enacted shield law from the years of 2008 through 2013. The lack of this law limits reporter's ability to report on important and high-stakes stories. Their 2008 law allowed journalists to claim reporter's privilege in most civil cases, minus defamation cases, and provided some reporter's privilege in criminal cases. The Hawaii House had set out in 2013 to extend this law, but this was not the case. 

Gerald Kato, an associate professor in the School of Communications at the University of Hawaii at Manoa states, "If we were going to end up with a bad law, we realized we would be better off with no law and just going to court and fighting on the belief that there is a qualified privilege. I understand that no law could be better than a bad law, but Shield Law is an extremely important law to cover reporter's rights in each state. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

6 - Copyright and Fair Use

   Is It Too Good to be True?      It's hard to not walk on eggshells when it comes to taking quotes from other sources, as plagiarism can break a career just as fast as it had started. When weighing the legality of the usage of other's work it comes down to the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount used in relation to the copyrighted, and the effect of the use upon the potential market of the copyrighted work.  "Fair Use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances." - copyright.gov           AliExpress is a major platform "for ecommerce entrepreneurs to find dropshipping products." Products are so cheap on AliExpress because you are most likely buying straight from the manufacturer through a different supplier. Dropshipping is "an order fulfillment method that does not require a business...
Post a Comment
Read more

4 - Plagiarism and Fabrication

 Plagiarism in College Sports You've all seen a show or movie that shows college athletes who have other students that do their schoolwork for them. In reality, collegiate athletes have a strict reputation to uphold. At Southern Arkansas most athletes are required a team study hall and coaches even go as far as to punish their athletes for missing classes. Athletes stay under the watchful eyes of their professors, coaches, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association(NCAA). The NCAA even has a Promoting and Protecting Academic Integrity compliance section on their website; they take academic misconduct very seriously. Being involved with the NCAA, student athletes not only risk backlash with a university for plagiarism, they also risk athletic ineligibility and the future of their careers. Even with scrutinous eyes upon them, some student athletes still attempt to find their way around the rules. In 2014, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after an investigation...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wild Card

Disney as a Democracy      Disney has its own government and I could not be more shocked. All in all " Disney World is technically its own city with its own residents." This all started in 1965 when the company wanted to expand and Walt Disney and his business partners purchased 27,000 acres of land in Orlando, Florida. After the purchase of this land, they discovered that it laid in two counties (Orange and Osceola) which meant they had to deal with two separate local government. In order to pull off their dream without "bureaucratic red tape", they needed to create " Disney's own self-regulating municipality within a special district." In 1967, Reedy Creek Improvement District was established by the Florida Legislature from the request of Mr. Walt Disney. The special purpose of this district made Disney responsible for providing services such as power, water, roads and fire protection. This district includes Bay Lake, where the Disney theme parks a...
Post a Comment
Read more