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.