My Full Comments On Oregon’s Shield Law
Over in today’s Willy I put in an appearance at the end of an item on Oregon’s shield law (which starts at ORS 44.510) and whether or not it applies to bloggers. In the interest of context, what follows is the full text of what I emailed Nicholas Deshais on the issue in response to his request for my opinion.
Any thoughts? Have you seen Oregon’s shield law? As a blogger … what do you think about it? Do you consider yourself a journalist? How do you define “journalist”?
First, I’d tend to agree that if the issue ever is adjudicated, the courts would be insane not to include bloggers under Oregon’s shield law. The law refers to any “person connected with, employed by or engaged in any medium of communication to the public” and defines “medium of communication” as having “its ordinary meaning and includes, but is not limited to, any newspaper, magazine or other periodical, book, pamphlet, news service, wire service, news or feature syndicate, broadcast station or network, or cable television system”.
That “includes, but is not limited to” is what covers bloggers.
But your last question is the important one. First and foremost, “journalism” is an act, not a profession. While obviously we have a profession of that name, the act comes first and the profession grows out of it. We have a profession of people who make their livings from being paid to commit acts of journalism — but that still leaves the ability for others who are not professional to commit those same acts.
A useful thing is to go back to the root of shield laws, which would be Constitutional protections for speech and the press. Taking the Federal constitution as the example, it protects speech, not just professional speakers. The same would hold true for press protections — it protects what “the press” does, not merely those who make their livings doing what it does.
So, as for the second-to-last question: Back when I was publishing Portland Communique as a full-time endeavor — in essence, as my job — I would have been considered a journalist.
But now, where blogging is my avocation and not my vocation, I don’t think I’m considered a journalist. But it doesn’t matter, because I still commit acts of journalism.
And it’s the act that counts, and the act which should be at issue when it comes to things such as Oregon’s shield law.