State Laws May Shield Journalists From Testifying inLegal Proceedings

Whether journalists have the right to refuse totestify in legal proceedings has been a contentiousissue in the United States. Over the past severalyears, it became a hot topic as reporters were calledto testify before a federal grand jury and at trialover who in the Bush Administration outed ValeriePlame as a Central Intelligence Agency spy. Whilereporters were forced to testify in I. Lewis"Scooter" Libby trial, whether a federal law will beenacted to protect journalists is still beforeCongress. This monograph thoroughly discusses thestate of testimonial privilege for journalists inboth the state and federal court systems and beforeCongress. It specifically compares and contrastsIllinois' Reporter's Privilege Act with similar lawsin 31 states and the District of Columbia that grantjournalists some form of testimonial privilege. Itthen analyzes how the Illinois courts have appliedthe law and assesses what protection journalists havein the state.

Autorentext

A professor of Journalism and director of Student Publications at Eastern Illinois University, John M. Ryan holds a Ph.D. in Journalism from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a master''s degree from the University of Illinois. Before joining the faculty at Eastern, Dr. Ryan was a newspaper reporter and editor.

Klappentext
Whether journalists have the right to refuse to testify in legal proceedings has been a contentious issue in the United States. Over the past several years, it became a hot topic as reporters were called to testify before a federal grand jury and at trial over who in the Bush Administration outed Valerie Plame as a Central Intelligence Agency spy. While reporters were forced to testify in I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby trial, whether a federal law will be enacted to protect journalists is still before Congress. This monograph thoroughly discusses the state of testimonial privilege for journalists in both the state and federal court systems and before Congress. It specifically compares and contrasts Illinois' Reporter's Privilege Act with similar laws in 31 states and the District of Columbia that grant journalists some form of testimonial privilege. It then analyzes how the Illinois courts have applied the law and assesses what protection journalists have in the state.