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AP: Senate panel endorses reporter shield law
Published 3/20/2010 in Local News
TOPEKA (AP) — A state Senate committee has endorsed creation of a shield law that would protect reporters in Kansas from being forced to reveal sources or information not previously published or broadcast.
The Senate Judiciary Committee gave its backing Thursday to the measure, which was crafted by Sen. Terry Bruce, a Hutchinson Republican.
Under the legislation, journalists would be protected from being ruled in contempt by any judicial or legislative body with the power to issue subpoenas, as long as the information was gained while the person was acting as a journalist.
The Kansas Press Association has been working for years to get some sort of protective statute passed. The issue gained a sense of immediacy this session after a Dodge City Daily Globe reporter was forced to share notes and confidential sources in a homicide case.
Reporter Claire O'Brien, who had been held in contempt after failing to appear in court, testified after her confidential source revealed his identity to prosecutors. That was after the state Supreme Court ruled against her appeal of a lower court's ruling that she must testify.
She later was fired from the Globe for undisclosed reasons.
Under the Senate bill, a journalist could still be required to disclose information if a court determined the entity issuing the subpoena had exhausted other options for obtaining the information. The entity also would have to show by a preponderance of evidence that the information should be provided.
Doug Anstaett, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, said the measure showed an interest by lawmakers to bring balance to "conflicts that sometimes arise when the press and the courts are trying to do their jobs."
"Journalists must remain independent so they can get sources to come forward and reveal the kind of information the public needs to judge how its government is working," he said. "This law, if approved, will make those unwarranted incursions into the journalistic process much more difficult."
But Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican, said the tension between prosecutors and journalists must be respected, and warned against tipping the balance too far in the favor of journalists because doing so would jeopardize the administration of justice.
"Those two interest groups have competing interests," he said.
More than 35 states have some type of shield law.
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