Will Washington protect journalists?

If Washington's attorney general is successful, journalists in Washington state will have more protections. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in its Dec. 22 edition:

The recent jail stint of a New York Times reporter might help spur passage of legislation to protect reporters in Washington state from having to disclose confidential sources.

But even some lawyers, prosecutors and others who support the concept of "shield" laws -- which exist in 31 other states and the District of Columbia -- have concerns about the details in legislation proposed by state Attorney General Rob McKenna.

Two Democratic and two Republican state senators are sponsoring McKenna's bill. It would provide an absolute protection to news media from court-ordered disclosure of confidential sources and a qualified protection for a reporter's notes, photographs, audio- or videotapes and other work products.

It also would protect third parties who could reveal a journalist's sources, such as a cellular phone company with records of calls to the sources.

The law would codify into law what has apprently existed in court rulings based on common law and on the federal First Amendment. It would also define a the news media as:

It would define "news media" as "any person or entity ... in the regular business of disseminating news or information to the public by any means," and who earns "a substantial portion of his or her livelihood" by such means. It would include journalists, their work associates, researchers and scholars.

This proposed law is not only important, it is necessary for a healthy democracy. When the news media have protection from prosecution, they will be more likely to continue the historical tradition of government watchdog. Roughly two-thirds of the states have this protection, and Washington should follow soon.

However, a source close to the proposal told me in November that student journalists were initially to be included in the definition of the news media, while bloggers would be excluded. The definition reported above would seem to exclude student journalists because they would not earn a substantial portion of their livelihood from their work as a student journalist. Furthermore, hobby bloggers would also be excluded apparently.

Hopefully, legislators in the short session set to begin in January will modify the language to include as news media all people associated with the dissemination of news. Such a broad definition would include scholastic and collegiate journalists as well as part-time bloggers.

Nonetheless, this is an important bill with bipartisan support, and it is one that should be enacted by the representatives in Olympia and signed by the governor.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.