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

Heading: Colorado's Newsperson's Privilege

Text: Having discussed the First Amendment interests implicated when a newsperson is compelled to disclose confidential news information, we turn to Colorado's statutory newsperson's privilege. In 1990, the General Assembly enacted a statute establishing a privilege for newspersons, essentially codifying Justice Powell's balancing test. See ch. 186, sec. 1, § 13-90-119, 1990 Colo. Sess. Laws 1262, 1262-64. [10] Section 13-90-119(2) provides members of the mass media a privilege shielding them from having to provide testimony and from being questioned about news information [11] that the person learned while acting in a newsperson's capacity: [12] Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary and except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, no newsperson shall, without such newsperson's express consent, be compelled to disclose, be examined concerning refusal to disclose, be subjected to any legal presumption of any kind, or be cited, held in contempt, punished, or subjected to any sanction in any judicial proceedings for refusal to disclose any news information received, observed, procured, processed, prepared, written, or edited by a newsperson, while acting in the capacity of a newsperson. Thus, consistent with the values of a free press and the usefulness of confidential sources, Colorado's General Assembly established a statutory privilege for newspersons allowing them to withhold news information sought in official proceedings. This privilege, however, is not absolute. Subsection 119(3) explains the conditions under which a newsperson can be compelled to disclose news information. Under this section, a court may compel a newsperson to disclose information if the party seeking the information can demonstrate: (a) That the news information is directly relevant to a substantial issue involved in the proceeding; (b) That the news information cannot be obtained by any other reasonable means; and (c) That a strong interest of the party seeking to subpoena the newsperson outweighs the interests under the First Amendment to the United States constitution of such newsperson in not responding to a subpoena and of the general public in receiving news information. § 13-90-119(3)(a)-(c); [13] see also Henderson v. People, 879 P.2d 383, 393 (Colo.1994) (finding that newsperson's privilege was not overcome because information sought could be obtained through other reasonable means). These conditions on a newsperson's privilege reflect the strong First Amendment interests of the press and the balancing test Justice Powell suggested to weigh the interests of the media against those of the party seeking confidential news information. Thus, under section 13-90-119, a newsperson has a qualified privilege from disclosing news information obtained in her capacity as a newsperson, but that privilege may be overcome if, based on the trial court's determination, the party seeking the information satisfies the three factors listed in subsection 119(3). The first of the three conditions is that the news information sought must be relevant to a substantial issue involved in the proceeding. See § 13-90-119(3)(a). In some cases, the confidential information may be the only evidence of a crucial aspect of the case, while in other situations, the information may be only marginally relevant to a less significant issue. For instance, in a media defamation case the information about the reliability of the declarant's sources may be relevant to the significant issue of the reporter's state of mind about the truth or falsity of his broadcasts. The less credible the sources, the more likely the declarant acted with malice or a reckless disregard of the truth by broadcasting the information they provided. Hence, the identities of these persons and what they said reflects directly on the declarant's state of mind with respect to the truth or falsity about the information he broadcast. See Phillip Morris Cos., 23 Media L. Rptr. at 1438-39. Alternatively, even if there exists sufficient proof of actual malice, the identities of the declarant's sources may be relevant for the plaintiff to prove, for instance, that the statement was false or to overcome the affirmative defense of truth. See Churchey v. Adolph Coors Co., 759 P.2d 1336, 1341 (Colo. 1988) (recognizing truth as an affirmative defense to an allegation of defamation). In some cases, disclosure of the source may be relevant to prove that the source did not exist. Each case must rest on its own unique facts. When the news information sought bears so directly on substantial elements of a plaintiff's claims, the court may determine that section 13-90-119(3)(a) is satisfied. The second factor that a court must consider before compelling a newsperson to disclose information is whether the information is obtainable through other reasonable means. See § 13-90-119(3)(b). The burden is on the party seeking the information to demonstrate to the court both that no other reasonably available sources of the information exist and that the party has exhausted the reasonably available sources that might provide the information sought. See Bauer v. Gannett Co., 557 N.W.2d 608, 612 (Minn. Ct.App.1997). Further, the party seeking disclosure must demonstrate that it has made substantial efforts to obtain the information from other sources; bald assertions that the information cannot be obtained through alternative sources cannot sustain a court's order requiring disclosure by a newsperson asserting the privilege. See id. ; see also Zerilli v. Smith, 656 F.2d 705, 714 & n. 50 (D.C.Cir.1981) (noting that in some circumstances a court may require a party to depose as many as sixty people before concluding that the party has exhausted reasonably available alternative sources of confidential information). In cases where the information itself is the subject of the plaintiff's inquiry, a court must consider whether the plaintiff has exhausted available avenues from which the information could be obtained. For example, in Henderson, we held that the newsperson's privilege protected the newsperson from compelled disclosure because the plaintiff had not sought information about a helicopter's flight path from public aviation authorities and because other witnesses had provided the information sought. See 879 P.2d at 393. In other situations, however, there may be no reasonable alternative means of obtaining the information sought. For instance, the identities of and information revealed by confidential sources often cannot be obtained by means other than disclosure by the newsperson because the plaintiffs cannot find anyone who both knows and is willing to disclose information about the confidential sources. See Phillip Morris Cos., 23 Media L. Rptr. at 1439. Thus, before compelling disclosure of confidential news information, a court must determine that no other sources of specific information directly relevant to an official proceeding exist. In cases where a party seeks news information related indirectly to an issue in the case and the specific information sought is not itself central, the court should consider whether there are other sources of the information being sought. For example, a plaintiff in a defamation case may be able to establish the actual malice of the declarant with information other than the identity of source on which the declarant relied, such as testimonial or documentary evidence of the declarant's state of mind. In other words, even though the specific information sought may not be available through other means (e.g., the names of and information revealed by confidential sources), the information that is truly relevant to the defendant's claims (e.g., the actual malice of the newsperson) may be available through other evidence. See Dangerfield v. Star Editorial, Inc., 817 F.Supp. 833, 838 (C.D.Cal.1993). In such instances, the court will not compel disclosure. As the third consideration for compelling disclosure under section 13-90-119(3), the court must weigh the interests of the party seeking the information against the First Amendment interests of the newsperson in withholding it and the public's interest in promoting the gathering and reporting of news. This balancing test requires the court to consider the First Amendment values Justice Stewart eloquently set forth in Branzburg. The newsperson's privilege should give way only under circumstances where the party seeking the information has a truly significant interest at stake, such as the interest that defamation plaintiffs have in protecting their reputations. See Herbert, 441 U.S. at 169, 99 S.Ct. 1635 (recognizing that a person's reputation is a basic concern). As part of the balancing test required under section 13-90-119(3)(c), the court must consider the nature of the claim at issue. For example, [w]hen the journalist is a party, and successful assertion of the privilege will effectively shield him from liability, the equities weigh somewhat more heavily in favor of disclosure. Zerilli, 656 F.2d at 714. On the other hand, when the newsperson is not a party and is merely a source of information for one party in a lawsuit, the newsperson's state of mind is not at issue in the case and the equities weigh in favor of respecting the privilege. In addition to its exposition of these three factors under section 13-90-119(3), the district court considered the evidence presented by both parties to determine whether Gordon had shown that Boyles's statements were provable as false. Essentially, the court asked whether Gordon presented sufficient evidence to conclude that Boyles's statements were more likely than not false. The court made this assessment because false speech does not contribute to the values protected by the First Amendment and thus receives minimal protection. See Gertz, 418 U.S. at 340, 94 S.Ct. 2997 ([T]here is no constitutional value in false statements of fact). The reasoning of the trial court was that if, based on the evidence presented it appeared that Boyles's comments were probably false, then the First Amendment interests in protecting Boyles's sources were substantially less than if it appeared at least somewhat likely that Boyles's statements were true. As part of its analysis, the court took into account the fact that no eyewitnesses placed Gordon at the nightclub when Thomas was stabbed or claimed that Gordon stabbed Thomas. Further, the court found that Boyles presented no evidence that Gordon was even present at the scene when Thomas was stabbed and that Boyles relied upon no evidence other than unsupported hearsay statements that Gordon stabbed Thomas. Thus, because false speech receives little First Amendment protection, and because evidence available at the time of the broadcasts indicated that Boyles's radio broadcast statements were probably false, the court concluded that Gordon's interests in obtaining the information outweighed the First Amendment interests at stake. Although we do not adopt the trial court's terminology, we agree with its approach to assessing the interests of both parties under section 13-90-119(3)(c). We hold that, as part of the balancing test required by that section, the trial court must weigh the evidence presented at the pretrial hearing to determine whether the newsperson's statements were probably false. [14] If a newsperson defendant in a defamation case can provide evidence that a confidential source's information was at least probably truthful, then the court should favor non-disclosure. For example, in Southwell v. Southern Poverty Law Center, 949 F.Supp. 1303 (W.D.Mich. 1996) the court refused to compel disclosure of confidential sources because it was convinced that the defendant provided sufficient evidence to support a reasonable reliance on the confidential source. 949 F.Supp. 1303, 1307-08 (W.D.Mich.1996). The defendant in Southwell produced notes from a conversation with the source that included specific details, such as the names of persons present at a meeting being described by the source, the license plate number of a car driven by one of those present at the meeting, and the nature of the conversation at the meeting. See id. Because the defendant produced sufficient evidence of the reliability and probable truthfulness of the source's information, the court did not compel disclosure. See id. at 1307. We note, as did the court in Southwell, that a court should weigh the evidence known to the defendant about his source's information at the time that the defendant published the defamatory statement. See id. at 1309. That is, proving that a source's information was false after publication does not establish that the defendant knew or should have known the information was false. See id. If the newsperson defendant can demonstrate that there was a reasonable basis to believe that a source's information was true at the time it was reported, then the court should favor protecting the source. By doing so, the court will not dissuade reporters from relying on sources they believe are reliable because such discouragement would run counter to the interests protected by the First Amendment. By contrast, when a defendant produces little or no evidence to support his reliance on the source and the plaintiff demonstrates that the source's information was probably false, the court should favor compelling disclosure. In such instances, the First Amendment interests at stake are probably minimal because false statements of fact receive little protection and the First Amendment was not designed to foster the reporting and dissemination of false facts. Thus, if the trial court is convinced that a newsperson had only an insubstantial basis (or no basis at all) to believe in the truthfulness of the source's information, then the First Amendment interests at stake are probably minimal and compelling disclosure may be appropriate. See Herbert, 441 U.S. at 171, 99 S.Ct. 1635; Cervantes, 464 F.2d at 994. By weighing the relative strength of the evidence presented as to the likely falsity of the defendant's statements, the trial court ensures that newspersons will not be forced to disclose confidential sources based on unsubstantiated claims of injury resulting from alleged falsehoods. See Dallas Morning News Co. v. Garcia, 822 S.W.2d 675, 681 (Tex.App.San Antonio 1991), writ conditionally granted. The court does not have to be convinced that the statement is actually false; rather, the court must believe that, based on the evidence presented at the pretrial hearing, the statement is probably false. [15] Thus, if the plaintiff fails to convince a court of the probable falsity of allegedly defamatory remarks, or the newsperson defendant in a defamation action produces sufficient evidence to persuade the court that the statements were true, then the court will not compel disclosure. In sum, the General Assembly adopted section 13-90-119 in order to protect the First Amendment interests of newspersons who rely on confidential sources of information to gather and report news about public affairs. However, the privilege is qualified, not absolute. A court must carefully weigh each of the three factors listed in section 13-90-119(3)(a)-(c) before compelling disclosure. As part of the balancing test required under section 13-90-119(3)(c) to weigh the First Amendment interests of a newsperson defendant in resisting compelled disclosure of confidential sources and the plaintiff's interest in the information, the trial court must make a preliminary determination about the probable falsity of the defendant's statements. While in some instances disclosure may be the best option, we emphasize that when deciding whether to compel a newsperson to disclose confidential information, a trial court should compel disclosure only as a last resort when necessary to promote the effective administration of justice.