Reporter's privilege Reporter's privilege typically focuses on the right to refuse to disclose a source in court proceedings. Many jurisdictions expand the privilege to cover information gathered by a reporter in the course of putting a story together. The reasons for seeking the reporter's information are numerous-perhaps the reporter did a story that touches on some aspect of the dispute or interviewed a key witness in a pending criminal prosecution. Or maybe your station has videotape of an accident or crime scene. Most states and the District of Columbia have shield laws providing varying degrees of protection from forced disclosure.
Most states also provide some degree of privilege based on constitutional or common law.
For years, journalists have more or less assumed that there is First Amendment protection for newsgathering they can rely on to avoid testifying or disclosing certain news-related materials. Most federal courts do offer some kind of protection when it comes to disclosing confidential and non-confidential information compiled in newsgathering but not published or broadcast, such as notes and outtakes. The courts have applied this test to subpoenas from plaintiffs and defendants in federal court in civil cases and to requests from prosecutors and defendants in federal criminal trials. The test has not been an absolute bar, but it has made it more difficult to compel discovery information from a journalist. Trouble brewing Last year, however, two federal courts unexpectedly and disturbingly changed course.