Such a measure would give Bay State reporters protection from contempt rulings for not divulging sources.

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, December 4, 2004

BOSTON (AP) -- A Boston lawyer is spearheading a movement to pass a reporter's shield law in Massachusetts, prompted by cases across the country of reporters being held in contempt and jailed for refusing to reveal their confidential sources.

The campaign follows several high-profile cases, including that of Providence NBC TV reporter Jim Taricani, who faces jail time for having refused to reveal who gave him a videotape showing former Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.'s top aide, Frank E. Corrente, taking a $1,000 cash bribe from an FBI informant who was posing as a corrupt businessman.

The day after the WJAR-TV reporter was found in criminal contempt by a federal judge, U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., proposed a federal shield law for reporters. Taricani faces up to six months in prison when he is sentenced Thursday. .

Since he was convicted, Joseph A. Bevilacqua Jr., a defense lawyer in the Plunder Dome corruption case, has said he was the source of the tape, but it's unclear whether that admission will change Taricani's fate.

In Massachusetts, lawyer Jeffrey Newman is working with New England Cable News, the largest regional news network in the country, to form a committee of journalists to help draft a reporter's shield law.

Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia already have laws on the books protecting journalists from revealing their sources or disclosing information they received during the course of their reporting that didn't ultimately end up in the finished product. Several other states have a body of court decisions that protect journalists.

In Massachusetts, there is no shield law, and previous court rulings are mixed, giving little guidance to judges when a journalist is asked to reveal confidential information, Newman said.

Charles Kravetz, station manager and vice president of news at NECN, said a decline in the public's perception of journalists in recent years has contributed to an increased willingness on the part of judges to hold reporters in contempt for failing to reveal confidential information.

"Because of that, I think there's less sympathy when you see journalists who . . . are facing real jail time for doing what those of us in the business see as their jobs," he said.

Newman said the shield law for Massachusetts would require state judges to make a determination whether the information being sought can be obtained in other ways and then to weigh how crucial the information is to the person seeking it against the rights of the journalist.

J.W. Carney Jr., a former state prosecutor who now works as a Boston defense attorney, said the the news media should have the right to protect sources under most circumstances.

But Carney said if a defendant in a criminal case is looking to obtain evidence that could help in his defense, a reporter's rights should be trumped by the rights of the defendant.

"There is an explicit provision in the Constitution that entitles a criminal defendant to present all evidence in his defense," Carney said. "In that situation, the defendant's right to a defense has to outweigh the reporter's interests in keeping the information secret."

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said that while the number of subpoenas issued to reporters in state courts has remained fairly stable in recent years, the number of subpoenas issued to reporters by federal courts has exploded.

Under Dodd's bill, the federal courts, legislative or executive branch could not compel a journalist to provide the source of information, whether or not that person has been promised confidentiality.