Journalists' Rights Tracker

Missouri would join 31 other states in granting reporters legal protection against revealing confidential sources if a bill considered Monday passes.

A bipartisan measure, it would have courts consider how important information sought was to an investigation or a court case and whether the seeker had exhausted other means of obtaining it. [...]

"It's not an absolute privilege, but it gives the presumption of privilege to the reporter until a balancing test" occurs in a circuit court, said Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. He and Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, both members of the committee, have filed similar bills that they plan to combine in Crowell's Senate Bill 1013.

The bill would require anyone seeking confidential information from a reporter to detail for a circuit court judge the information sought, its relevancy to a case or investigation and the necessity of the information's release.

The proposed shield law would apply to print, radio and television reporters, Internet bloggers and other information providers questioned during a state or federal investigation, Crowell said.