Word: shielding
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...leaves reporters everywhere guessing about the risk of fighting subpoenas. In Branzburg vs. Hayes (1972), the leading pronouncement on the subject, the Justices ruled 5 to 4 that reporters could not refuse to testify before a grand jury. The court did suggest, however, that states could enact "shield" laws to protect a reporter's sources and notes. New Jersey and 25 other states have them. In Farber's case, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided that the shield law "must yield," because it came into conflict with a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial...
...third defendant, Harry Neil Kelly, stood trial. But when Porterfield was asked during trial testimony to reveal confidential sources he used in his stories, he invoked the Alaska "Shield Law" 68 times. The 1967 law, never before tested, permits reporters to refuse to reveal their sources unless a judge orders them to after a special hearing. Kelly's defense lawyers won the right to a special hearing, but Porterfield won the right to hold on to the notes...
...case was more typical of shield law conflicts because, unlike Farber's case, I at least got a hearing," said Porterfield, who termed himself "a purist who still believes that the first amendment gives blanket coverage to reporters...
Brown's other line of defense was to contend that Farber and former Bergen County Prosecutor Joseph Woodcock had conspired to frame Jascalevich. Claiming that he was looking for evidence to support that theory, Brown demanded Farber's notes. Farber refused, citing the First Amendment and a New Jersey shield law allowing reporters to keep their sources confidential. Moreover, he insisted he had no information that would establish Jascalevich's guilt or innocence. Farber was cited for contempt, jailed and fined $2,000; the Times was fined $100,000 plus $5,000 for each day of the trial the reporter...
...very close. Two daughters--Joey (Mary Beth Hurt), the father's favorite, and Renata (Diane Keaton), the mother's protoge--display tension and jealousy even thicker than blood, as it were. A third daughter, in turn, has drawn away from the family, retaining only casual ties that shield her from real emotional involvement. Almost every sentence between these characters is either a painful expression of guilt, or an even more trying repression of feelings the family cannot even talk about...