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Friday, September 22, 2006
Reporters to serve time for refusing to name sources The reason for this is that there is no legal definition for "journalist," and if the First Amendment is to mean anything, there can't be one.That means that the law -- that courts can subpoena information that's pertinent to a case -- applies to journalists as it applies to everyday people. If we're going to give journalists rights that others don't have, we need to license them so those rights aren't abused. Otherwise, criminals and their acquaintances could get out of testifying by writing about their cases. Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com. Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by Robert VerBruggen at 5:14 PM |
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2 Comments:
On the whole, federal law on this issue is not on the side of the reporters. Generally speaking, privileges are an evidentiary issue to deal with admissibility. For the non-legal types, if a privilege exists, any testimony will be disregarded by the court to protect the interests the privilege protects. Under federal law, current privileges include doctor-patient, psyhotherapist-patient (though to a limited degree), and attorney-client. State law is very different on this issue. Many states have laws called sheild laws that provide extra protection for the press. However, this case is in federal court, and these writers will look forward to a Judith Milller-like stay in a federal prison.
This is a very good point, and thanks for bringing up the difference between federal and state laws (probably should have mentioned it in my original post). Also I'd like to point out that attorneys, doctors and psychotherapists are all licensed.
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