Battle For Hawaii’s Shield Law: House Pushes Back Against Senate
House lawmakers aren’t going along with the Senate鈥檚 version of a bill that protects journalists from revealing their confidential sources under certain circumstances.
Rep. Karl Rhoads on Thursday put forward a new draft of House Bill 622 that would extend the state鈥檚 shield law protections to bloggers and non-traditional journalists. It also eliminates the requirement that newspapers and magazines have a paid circulation for a year to claim the media privilege.
That rolls back many changes made in the bill by Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee Chair Clayton Hee which had drawn fire from media interests throughout Hawaii and nationally.
Still, the latest version of HB 622 would be weaker than the current law, which expires June 30 unless the Legislature takes action. It wouldn鈥檛 protect journalists from having to turn over unpublished information, such as notes or video outtakes, and it greatly expands the exceptions for claiming the privilege.
鈥淚 disagreed with the Senate version, so generally that means you鈥檙e trying to pull it back toward the House version,鈥 Rhoads said after the hearing. 鈥淲e see this as a compromise between the two versions. Whether anyone else will see it as a compromise, I don鈥檛 know.鈥
Not wanting to negotiate the bill in the media, he declined to elaborate on why he didn鈥檛 like certain accepts of the Senate version.
Rhoads and Hee serve as the chairs of a nine-member conference committee that is working to iron out the differences over the bill.
Hee could not be reached for comment after the hearing Thursday evening.
University of Hawaii journalism professor Gerald Kato, who is part of a coalition of 22 media outlets trying to just set the current shield law in stone, said he is mystified by the process.
鈥淭his conference draft seems to come out of nowhere,鈥 he said. 鈥淥ur frustration is drafts seem to materialize out of nowhere without any discussion with the people it will affect, the journalists.鈥
Kato said the development of the original law, which has been in effect five years and tested in court only once, involved discussion between lawmakers and reporters. He said the current process has involved little-to-no consultation with the media.
The national plans to send the Legislature a letter Friday about the bill, Kato said.
The group has that the Senate version runs contrary to the national trend because more states are recognizing what modern day journalism means. The Senate version would eliminate protections for online news outlets like Huffington Post or ProPublica that don鈥檛 require a paid subscription.
Hee said during the hearing that more input from the state Attorney General鈥檚 office is needed. The AG has said the current law is overly broad.
Rhoads said he didn鈥檛 know what to expect Monday afternoon when the conference committee continues its work on the bill.
鈥淲e鈥檒l see what the reaction is,鈥 he said.
Read the proposed HB 622 conference draft here:
