The third time could be the charm for a state lawmaker who wants to protect journalists from having to testify about confidential sources in court.
As a former reporter in northern Virginia, Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, said she wants to protect the institution of journalism, especially as it comes under fire in the current political climate.
Each year since she was elected to the House of Delegates in 2017, she has filed some version of a shield law for journalists. The bill says a court must exhaust all other ways of getting the information and show that it’s of high relevance to prove something before a judge can compel a journalist to testify. A court must also show that a journalist’s testimony could prevent “imminent threat of bodily harm or death.”
“There’s a lot of thresholds you have to cross in order to get that testimony,” Roem said.
Now in her second term, she has received support from other former journalists that now have a seat in the House — Republican Del. Lee Ware and Democratic delegates Shelly Simonds and Chris Hurst.
Ware was a former editor and reporter in New Hampshire, Simonds was a reporter in Chile, and Hurst is a former evening anchor of WDBJ7 in Roanoke, according to Roem.
“This is my best faith effort to really take the perspectives of four reporters who are now legislators who understand what protecting the journalistic mission is about as a dispassionate third party observer,” Roem said.
Hurst, who is starting his second term representing Blacksburg and surrounding cities, is trying to pass his own journalism protection bill for the second time.
The bill codifies freedom of the press for middle and high school journalists reporting for a school publication overseen by a media adviser.
It gives students the right to publish material unless it’s libelous or slanderous, is an unwarranted invasion of privacy, creates a “clear and present danger”, violates state or federal law or causes a “substantial disruption” to the school day.
It requires school boards to have a policy saying student journalists have a right to a free press and offers protections for media advisers who try to protect students
Frank Lomonte, the former executive director of the Student Press Law Center who now teaches media law at the University of Florida, said the retaliation protections are especially important, because school officials will go to the media advisor first if they want to shut down a story.
“That’s so often where that censorship happens,” he said. “(The media advisor) ends up acting as a censor because it’s the only way to keep her job.”
Hurst’s bill was modeled after legislation that’s been approved in 14 other states to reverse the 1988 Supreme Court decision that said schools could censor school-sponsored publications if they had an educational reason for doing so.
Lomonte said in the 14 other states that have passed the so-called “New Voices” legislation, it was not a partisan issue.
“I think that it will help because Delegate Hurst is on that side of the aisle,” Lomonte said when asked about the bill’s chances in a new Democratic majority. “As a general matter, you’d have to imagine that all of his bills will get a more favorable hearing.”
Marie Albiges, 757-247-4962, malbiges@dailypress.com
