Opinion ID: 2599511
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: First Amendment Context of the Newsperson's Privilege

Text: We begin our analysis with a review of the First Amendment concerns that favor allowing newspersons to withhold confidential news information even though the information is directly relevant to official proceedings. Although he dissented from the Court's holding in Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U.S. 665, 92 S.Ct. 2646, 33 L.Ed.2d 626 (1972) Justice Stewart aptly described the importance of promoting an unfettered press as a central component of our democracy: Enlightened choice by an informed citizenry is the basic ideal upon which an open society is premised, and a free press is thus indispensable to a free society. Not only does the press enhance personal self-fulfillment by providing people with the widest possible range of fact and opinion, but it also is an incontestable precondition of self-government . . . . As private and public aggregations of power burgeon in size and the pressures for conformity necessarily mount, there is obviously a continuing need for an independent press to disseminate a robust variety of information and opinion through reportage, investigation, and criticism, if we are to preserve our constitutional tradition of maximizing freedom of choice by encouraging diversity of expression. 408 U.S. 665, 726-27, 92 S.Ct. 2646 (1972) (Stewart, J., dissenting) (footnotes omitted). Also as Justice Stewart recognized, the ability of the press to gather information by promising to keep the identities of their sources confidential is a crucial tool for the media: No less important to the news dissemination process is the gathering of information. News must not be unnecessarily cut off at its source, for without freedom to acquire information the right to publish would be impermissibly compromised. . . . The right to gather news implies, in turn, a right to a confidential relationship between a reporter and his source. This proposition follows as a matter of simple logic once three factual predicates are recognized: (1) newsmen require informants to gather news; (2) confidentialitythe promise or understanding that names or certain aspects of communications will be kept off the recordis essential to the creation and maintenance of a news-gathering relationship with informants; and (3) an unbridled subpoena power [to require the disclosure of confidential information] will either deter sources from divulging information or deter reporters from gathering and publishing information. Id. at 728, 92 S.Ct. 2646. Despite Justice Stewart's recognition of the important role of the press in our society and the usefulness of confidential sources in fulfilling that role, the Court majority determined that the First Amendment does not protect members of the press from having to disclose confidential news information at official proceedings. See id. at 690, 92 S.Ct. 2646. Even though the Court determined that there is no First Amendment privilege for newspersons, it noted that Congress and the states are free to fashion such a privilege if they so choose: At the federal level, Congress has freedom to determine whether a statutory newsman's privilege is necessary and desirable and to fashion standards and rules as narrow or broad as deemed necessary to deal with the evil discerned and, equally important, to refashion those rules as experience from time to time may dictate. There is also merit in leaving state legislatures free, within First Amendment limits, to fashion their own standards in light of the conditions and problems with respect to relations between law enforcement officials and press in their own areas. It goes without saying, of course, that we are powerless to bar state courts from responding in their own way and construing their own constitutions so as to recognize a newsman's privilege, either qualified or absolute. Id. at 706, 92 S.Ct. 2646. In a concurring opinion, Justice Powell emphasized that newspersons should be forced to disclose news information only after a court makes a decision based on the particular facts of each case. He suggested that courts should be reluctant to compel disclosure from newspersons, thereby infringing on the operation of the press. Justice Powell stated that before a newsperson should be required to disclose confidential information, a court should determine on a case-by-case basis whether the information is directly relevant and whether the First Amendment interests of the press outweigh the obligation of all citizens to provide relevant testimony in official proceedings. See id. at 710, 92 S.Ct. 2646 (Powell, J., concurring).