On Sunday, August 26, 2001, at 11:25 AM, Declan McCullagh wrote:
On Sun, Aug 26, 2001 at 09:55:05AM -0700, Tim May wrote:
Except that all it takes is for the judge to grant the witness transactional or use immunity. Or even full immunity (less common, from what I hear).
"Mr. McCullagh, the court hereby grants you transactional immunity for your testimony today. Now Mr. McCullagh, please answer the prosecutors questions and give the court all of your notes made regarding this witness."
I didn't assert the 5A, but the 1A, during my brief experience before the Grumpy Judge.
What Tim and Dave and John seem not to understand is that journalists routinely refuse to reveal their sources even when threatened with subpoenas and contempt of court. Some editors will only hire reporters who pledge they'll go to jail before revealing a source.
Don't tar me with that brush, Declan! I said absolutely nothing about what fraction of reporters stand their ground, what fraction roll over, what fraction end up going to jail on contempt charges, and so on. I've addressed two basic issues: -- the issue of shield laws, which I think are clearly unconstitutional and which raise issues of state sanctioning of some reporters over other reporters -- the claim that assertion of 5A rights lets a witness choose not to testify I made no claims about whether reporters routinely refuse to name their sources. (I did hint that Jeff Gordon, the victim/witness/real prosecutor probably took into account the "can of worms" he would be opening if he sought to compell disclosure of certain things...an implicit reference to the fact that many reporters will refuse to name sources and to disclose things said to them.)
Some journalists may be schmucks -- the local reporter in the Bell case who took the stand and blabbed for the better part of an hour is one example -- but many are principled. This may make prosecutors leery of calling them in the first place.
Hence the comment I made about can of worms. I think John Young would have had a much harder time claiming reporter's privilege. Checking the archives for the period when Bell was trying to track down home addresses of agents should clarify this point. John might have done better to assert 5A rights and make them force the issue by dropping the line of questioning or granting him some form of immunity. --Tim May