I was glad to see a California appeals court rule in favor of a blogger’s right to shield his or her sources, just like "traditional" journalists. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
In their ruling, the judges said the online news sites should be treated
as newspapers, television and radio broadcasts are. O’Grady and the other
bloggers, they contended, were acting as traditional reporters and editors do:
developing sources, collecting information and publishing it, albeit on the
Web."The shield law is intended to protect the gathering and dissemination of
news, and that is what the petitioners did here," the judges said in the
ruling.
The judges ruled the format in which news is published, be it a newspaper, television or online, doesn’t matter as long as a journalist is "engaged in journalism." It’s good to see respect and credibility being given to bloggers, who are increasingly fulfilling an important role in breaking important stories before the "traditional media" get around to them.
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