Reporter's shield laws

[Declan McCullagh]

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. 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. Only 10-20 professional
journalists in the last two decades have been imprisoned, usually for
a period not exceeding a few days, for not revealing their sources.

See the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press for details.

-Declan