Reporter's privilege in the United States (also journalist's privilege, newsman's privilege, or press privilege), is a "reporter's protection under constitutional or statutory law, from being compelled to testify about confidential information or sources."[1] It may be described in the US as the qualified (limited) First Amendment or statutory right many jurisdictions have given to journalists in protecting their confidential sources from discovery. [2]
The First, Second, Third, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits have all held that a qualified reporter's privilege exists. In the 2013 case of U.S. v. Sterling, the Fourth expressly denied a reporter's privilege exists under Branzburg. Furthermore, forty-nine states and the District of Columbia have enacted statutes called shield laws protecting journalists' anonymous sources.[3]