A STATE SENATOR FROM NEW YORK CITY has introduced legislation to extend New York's shield law protections to journalist bloggers.
Sen. Thomas K. Duane, a Manhattan Democrat, said it's time to bring the state's laws protecting journalists from revealing their sources into the 21st century.
“New York has a proud tradition of having one of the strongest reporter's shield laws in the country,” he said in a press release. “I was shocked to discover that in 2008, our law does not provide protections to journalist bloggers — one of the fastest-growing mediums for obtaining news. This glaring omission must not be allowed to continue.”
Under existing state law, professional journalists involved with newspapers, magazines, news agencies, press associations, wire services, radio or television are protected from being charged with contempt of court for failing to disclose any news obtained in confidence or failing to provide the identity of a confidential source.
Bloggers, however, have no such protections.
He cited a recent case in which the Bronx district attorney tried to subpoena a blog called Room 8 in an attempt to identify people blogging anonymously on the political Web site. The subpoena was eventually withdrawn.
“This is just one example of journalist bloggers threatened with civil and criminal penalties based solely on the content of their blog. If we do not enact my legislation, I can guarantee that we will witness more cases of journalist bloggers facing contempt charges and jail time,” Duane said. “This will have a chilling effect on free speech and a blogger's ability to aggressively report the news.”
The question with all such legislation is how to identify whether a person is a true journalist, and whether the law should extend to bloggers who post comments anonymously.
Duane's bill is still pending in the Senate Rules Committee.*