Court Opinion

ID: 9629507
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:43:49.640462+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:20.241869
License: Public Domain

*374Gunderson, J.,
dissenting:
From the majority opinion as written, I respectfully dissent.
The majority do not confine respondent to interrogating appellant Newburn on the precise matters he heretofore disclosed. I could accept a ruling thus limited, on the premise that Newburn, by his own conduct, demonstrated he did not consider the disclosed information confidential. I cannot, however, agree that Newburn may properly be ordered to answer “all questions relating to matters which he had disclosed. . . .” (Emphasis added.)
The majority opinion may be read to destroy the shield law totally, through a mechanical application of NRS 49.385(1). In my view, merely because a newsman reveals a “significant part” of a conversation does not, either logically or legally, establish that he has revealed “a significant part of a confidential matter” he learned during that conversation. Such is the test by which NRS 49.385(1) requires waiver to be measured.
Sometimes, within a lengthy conversation, there may be only one item which the newsperson and the source consider “a confidential matter.” Commonly, this is the source’s name; however, it could also be the identity of some other source, or the whereabouts of other evidence. Obviously, such secrets “relate” to the rest of the conversation. Still, neither party anticipates a waiver, and NRS 49.385(1) raises none, when the newsman discloses portions of the parties’ discussion which were not intended to remain secret.
In my view, under a correct interpretation of our statutes, one claiming a waiver of the shield law must prove, not merely that a “significant part” of a conversation has been disclosed, but that there has been disclosure of some part of the conversation which the parties intended to treat as “confidential.” In my view, therefore, the majority opinion incorrectly implies that whenever news personnel relate something they have discovered, in or out of print, a waiver results, thereby subjecting such personnel to interrogation upon “related” matters. I am confident our Legislature never intended such a result.