#5 - REPORTER'S PRIVILEGE

 The Future of Reporter's Privilege

    Reporter's privilege is something that has protected journalists for years and has given them
room to write the stories that need to be written. The basic idea behind reporter's privilege is that journalist's have a right, based on the first amendment, to not be forced to reveal confidential sources or information in court. Often times, journalists rely on confidential sources in order to write important pieces for the public and it can be risky to reveal those sources in a court of law. This protection allows reporters to write stories of public importance and keep their sources confidential. 

    While most states have shield laws or recognize this privilege to some degree, only two states has absolutely zero shield laws and do not recognize the protection: Wyoming and Hawaii. Hawaii has previously had a shield law but it expired in 2013 and has not been renewed since. However, things are starting to look up for Wyoming journalists as lawmakers have advanced legislation to prevent people from being able to sue reporters in order to get them to reveal their sources.  The shield law that would be put into place in Wyoming would give protection exclusively to reporting of legitimate news value. This excludes things like purposefully provoking articles that have malicious intent behind it. 

    As Wyoming journalists and reporters are seemingly looking forward to brighter days, journalists in the Washington D.C. area are facing harsher guidelines as the Biden Administration puts stronger restrictions on reporters looking to go to the White House. Restrictions had already been put into place early on in Biden's presidential career. These restrictions include a maxed capacity at 80 reporters per day and required COVID rapid tests before 1pm. Now, the White House is imposing a $170 COVID testing fee on reporters looking to get into the West Wing.

    These guidelines are a huge difference to how things were when Donald Trump was in office. In his time as president, journalists were able to go into the White House at any time without a taking a COVID test as long as they had a pass. Because of peer pressure from surrounding journalists, few abused their ability to go into the White House. While some precautions should definitely be put into place for safety reasons as COVID-19 is an ongoing issue, many people think it is wrong to charge reporters for access into the West Wing. Many associations fear that this will be an obstacle to for many journalists to cover news from the White House and could get in the way of the public's right to know what is going on.

 

    Clearly, reporter's privilege is not always a black and white issue. There are plenty of gray areas that journalists have to be able to fit into in order to write the important stories that the public needs to hear. As a future journalist, I am become more and more increasingly aware of the fact that I will possibly have to face situations such as the White House reporters and while it is definitely nerve wracking, it is also exciting to see what the future of reporter's privilege will be and how different it will look by the time I start my reporting career. 

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