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Freeing Newsgathering from the Reporter's Privilege |
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Jaynie Randall [View as PDF]
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114 Yale L.J. 1827 (2005)
A number of recent high-profile cases have forced courts to reexamine whether reporters must respond to subpoenas seeking disclosure of confidential sources or whether they are protected from doing so by the doctrine of reporter's privilege. While these confidential-source cases have garnered the most public attention, the vast majority of subpoenas issued to reporters seek to compel disclosure of nonconfidential information. In a recent case, McKevitt v. Pallasch, Judge Posner suggests that the reporter's privilege, if it exists at all, should not extend to nonconfidential information. In this Comment, I argue that Posner overlooks the unique ways in which a privilege for nonconfidential information protects the newsgathering process. Federal courts should use their common law power under Federal Rule of Evidence 501 to articulate a flexible newsgathering privilege for reporters analogous to the work product immunity that exists for attorneys.
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