The press gets a shield
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Saturday, January 26, 2008
To those of you out there who believe in a free press: Thank you. You and lots of people like you stepped up to voice opinions regarding the Utah Supreme Court's proposed Rule 509, and the state's high court agreed with you.
Wednesday, the justices met and adopted Rule 509 -- a reporter's shield for Utah. The rule provides that, "A news reporter or confidential source has a privilege to refuse to disclose and to prevent any other person from disclosing confidential source information, unless the person seeking the information demonstrates by clear and convincing evidence that disclosure is necessary to prevent substantial injury or death."
Prior to this momentous decision on the part of the court, reporters in Utah remained vulnerable to the whims of prosecutors and defense lawyers who could ask courts to force reporters to divulge names and notes in order to help their cases, under threat of jail time and fines. But now, with the court's adoption of Rule 509, when a reporter finds it necessary to promise confidentiality to a source in order to obtain information critical for the public to know, he or she can have confidence that such guarantees will be breached only "to prevent substantial injury or death."
The fact of the matter is, reporters don't like to grant anonymity. Stories in which sources are clearly identified tend to be stronger pieces of journalism, and inspire more confidence in what we do on a daily basis. But there are times, infrequent as they may be, that confidentiality is a requirement for obtaining important information the public needs to know.
Once in a while we get a phone call or letter asking us who gave us the right to dig up information that may be embarrassing about public officials or poor corporate behavior, etc. We're proud to be able to tell them that none other than James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and their fellow Founding Fathers gave us that right. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, also known as the Bill of Rights, reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Because enough concerned Beehive State citizens let their voices be heard on the subject, and because the justices of the Utah Supreme Court recognize the strength of a free and unfettered press, Utah has overnight gone from having one of the weakest reporter shields in the country to having one of its strongest. It's a great day for Utah journalism. But, more importantly, it's a great day for Utah.
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