ABSTRACT
Journalists believe federal law should provide them a privilege—a reporter's privilege or a journalist's privilege—that would allow them to protect the identity of sources who provide information on the condition they remain unnamed in the story. Few issues straddle the worlds of journalism ethics and media law more than reporter's privilege or shield law. While shield laws protect journalists, the key purpose is to protect sources' identities and their ability to get important information to the public via journalists. The reporter's privilege is about elevating the public discourse, not the press' stature. The state had more than one experience with reporters who refused to identify confidential sources when subpoenaed before a grand jury. The first attempt to enact a federal statutory privilege to allow a journalist to refuse to reveal the identity of a source to a federal judge or federal grand jury occurred in 1929.
