NOTES AT ISSUE

August 2001
		Who should receive the First Amendment's freedom of the press protections? How far should those protections extend? Two experts take your questions.

Forum introduction Are only professional journalists afforded some First Amendment freedoms? Can the government take Ms. Leggett's research without compensating her? Could Ms. Leggett have destroyed her notes? How do you read the Fifth Circuit's decision? What does the decision mean for journalists?     Online Special Media Watch Aug. 16, 2001 Should Vanessa Leggett have to turn over her research to a federal grand jury? Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the media.

The Online NewsHour asks: If the case stands as it does now, what does the Fifth Circuit’s ruling mean for First Amendment protection for journalists? What change does it prescribe, if any, for the law’s interpretation of who is a journalist?   Lucy Dalglish responds: To answer the second question first -- this case has nothing to do with whether or not Vanessa Leggett is a journalist. The courts that have decided this case have assumed that she is a journalist. The real issue here is whether there is a qualified privilege for journalists to protect sources and unpublished information in the 5th Circuit. That is an issue that affects every journalist in the 5th Circuit, whether they are a reporter for the Houston Chronicle or a freelancer for a weekly newspaper in Brownsville.   Bruce Fein responds: The Fifth Circuit changes nothing regarding a free press. It followed the 30-year-old precedent of the Supreme Court in Branzburg v. Hayes (1972). Despite the possibility that the identities of anonymous sources, e.g. "Deep Throat" of Watergate fame, can be compelled by grand juries, journalists have poured forth with cascades of investigative stories disclosing scandals and wrongdoing based on anonymous sources, even when classified information is in question. The Fifth Circuit opinion did not pivot on a definition of a journalist because whether Leggett fell within that category she still was obliged to reveal her sources to the grand jury under the Branzburg case.