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Abstract
Since the U.S. Supreme Court denied the existence of a federal "journalistic privilege" in the Branzburg vs. Hayes decision in 1972, a growing number of states have accepted the court's invitation to enact state shield laws. These laws, which permit journalists to protect the identity of confidential news sources, apparently fulfill their policy objective of stimulating the quantity and quality of investigative reporting by daily newspapers. This is the central finding of this study which compared investigative reporting in states with and without shield laws.
The study consisted of a survey of city editors from one hundred daily newspapers throughout the United States. The survey examined the quantity of investigative reporting, decision-making connected with investigative reporting, attitudes towards use of and protection of confidential sources and numbers of awards earned for investigative reporting. Open ended questions sought annecdotal evidence about experiences with shield laws. Further annecdotal evidence about the impact of shield laws on investigative reporting was obtained from elite interviews with award winning investigative reporters and editors in both shield and non-shield states.
Findings included: (1) That newspapers in states with shield laws publish more investigative reports than papers in states without shield laws. (2) That newspapers in states with shield laws win more national awards for investigative reporting than those in states without such laws. (3) That newspapers in states with shield laws win more regional awards for investigative reporting, an indication of investigative reporting activity by newspapers which, due to limited resources, find it difficult to compete for national awards. (4) That many newspapers in shield law states have successfully used shield laws to deter or have dismissed subpoenas seeking the names of confidential news sources.
The study makes no claims of causation but all quantitative and qualitative indices examined point to the positive impact which shield laws have on investigative reporting.
