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National Stories
There exists “no principle more fundamental or well-established than the right of a reporter to refuse to divulge a confidential source,” New York’s State Court of Appeals said in an decision Tuesday. The 4-3 decision means Fox News reporter Jana Winter will not have to travel to Colorado to testify in James Holmes’ murder trial. “We therefore conclude that an order from a New York court directing a reporter to appear in another state where, as here, there is a substantial likelihood that she will be compelled to identify sources who have been promised confidentiality would offend our strong public policy — a common law, statutory and constitutional tradition that has played a significant role in this State becoming the media capital of the country if not the world,” Judge Victoria A. Graffeo wrote in the majority opinion.
Poynter
Full text of opinion in In the Matter of James Holmes v. Jana Winter
The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., dismissed a freelance journalist's challenge last week to a U.S. Army decision to terminate the reporter's embed status with military in Afghanistan. The Army had found that the journalist, Wayne Anderson, had published a video in 2010 showing the faces of wounded American soldiers on The Washington Times website in violation of rules governing embedded reporters. Anderson sued five military officials, claiming, among other things, that they violated his free speech and due process rights by ending his position in Afghanistan without a meaningful hearing.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Last week, The Nabe reported that the New York City’s police precincts would no longer directly provide journalists with the forms detailing crime reports. On Monday, shortly after CUNY Graduate Graduate School of Journalism Dean Stephen B. Shepard sent a letter to NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly protesting the change in procedure, the Police Department announced access would be restored. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information John McCarthy, responding to Shepard’s letter within a half-hour of receiving it by email Monday night, said that journalists across the city will still be allowed to view the weekly crime reports in a timely manner – provided they make requests through his office.
The Nabe
With students and teachers swimming in academic data these days, a top state lawmaker wants tocreate a website where parents can access all of that data at once. Indiana House Education Committee Chair Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, will push a bill in the upcoming session to create a “data backpack,” based on a new Utah law the American Legislative Exchange Council recently highlighted as model legislation. In Utah, the legislation ordered the creation of a secure website that will eventually allow parents to see data points from students’ grades and attendance to their statewide test scores.
Indiana Public Media
State agencies in Kansas need to do a better job protecting sensitive information stored on their computer systems, a new audit said. The information technology audit found "chronic weaknesses" in several security controls, including weak passwords and software vulnerabilities. That has left several state agencies vulnerable to hackers gaining access to confidential data or breaches from within. "After three years of auditing this area, we have seen little improvement across agencies," said Justin Stowe with the Legislative Post Audit Division.
Lawrence Journal-World
Newly declassified documents show Tuesday that former CIA Director Leon Panetta revealed secret information to "Zero Dark Thirty" scriptwriter Mark Boal when Panetta gave a speech at CIA headquarters marking the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Panetta said through a spokesman that he didn't know Boal was in the room. Judicial Watch filed a request for the more than 200 pages of documents, which the CIA released Tuesday. The documents concerned the internal investigation of its role in the film about the bin Laden raid.
Politico
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