Gene Park: 21st Century Blogging Means Hawaii Needs A Media Shield Law
We live in an era where personal brand journalism has become more mainstream than ever.
British journalist Andrew Sullivan wrote for Time Magazine, The Atlantic and The Daily Beast before launching his own “” site. Glenn Greenwald, famously known for breaking the Edward Snowden story, is starting his own news organization as part of First Look Media, a new national media company owned by Civil Beat publisher Pierre Omidyar.
And then there’s Ezra Klein, the millennial journalist who rose to fame with his WonkBlog on the Washington Post, who just quit that storied institution to .
In Hawaii, none of these prominent writers would be protected.
That’s because Hawaii’s shield law was allowed to sunset last year. Now it looks like it might stay that way for some time.
I’ve had talks with Hawaii lawmakers and shield law proponents this year, and nothing seems to be moving. There is no federal shield law, but most other states have state shield laws to protect journalists from having to reveal their sources and notes in legal cases.
“I’ve heard nothing,” said Jeff Portnoy, the prominent media and First Amendment attorney who led the Hawaii Shield Law Coalition last year. “Many of the people that were involved, including myself, found it all so distasteful that I don鈥檛 gauge any great enthusiasm to have to go through that same distasteful process again.”
“I just don’t know at this point,” said state Rep. Karl Rhoads, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
It’s a shame, because Hawaii will need it more than ever.
“Personal branding” in journalism is a fairly old concept, but new media rules give it new life. It’s used to describe journalists who work for a news company, like the Washington Post, but are building their own following while benefiting from their employer’s legacy, like the 29-year-old Klein. The concept (when applied to other industries) was outlined eloquently in a still-poignant 1997 Fast Company article called, “.”
In Hawaii, we have several instances of personal brand journalism. Ian Lind was a trailblazer, a hard-edged journalist who didn’t survive the Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s last reincarnation in 2001. (It ultimately became the Star-Advertiser in 2010.)
But in 1999, Ian was already blogging on before the practice came into vogue. His obsession with cats even predates that of modern web culture. He remains a weekly columnist with Civil Beat, and ilind.net is consistently among the most visited blog destinations in the state.
And there are longtime neighbor island bloggers like and .
“I was really kind of relying on the shield law,” said Parx in a phone interview from his Kauai home.
Parx has covered Kauai County government for years through his blog. “It just made me feel better of what I was saying,” he said. “It would be harder for them to go after me, which was not outside the realm of possibility.”
Parx added, “I guess everybody’s scared of Clayton Hee.”
It’s true, the chairman of the influential Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee is for killing Hawaii’s shield law last year. Hee was not immediately available for comment. But shield law advocates see little reason to renew a push for legislation as long as the Senate’s leadership remains in place.
Technically the shield law proposal isn’t dead. The last House proposal from the 2013 session, House Bill 622, is carried over to the 2014 regular session. The bill was a last-ditch attempt to extend the shield law for two more years, but lawmakers couldn’t agree and the bill staggered.
“The political lay of the land is still pretty much the same,” said Rhoads, who pushed for HB 622 last year.
For his part, Portnoy seems to be pau with the fight.
“It鈥檚 not my cross to bear,” he said. “I took a lot of flak last session in trying to get this done, and I think there are others that need to step up. I鈥檇 still much prefer (a shield law). It gave us certainty, and in its five years it proved to not be an impediment to law enforcement or anyone. But for now, if need be, we just leave it up to the courts to decide on what protection there should be.”
In 2011, 70 percent of journalists used blogs for their reporting, according to a . That’s a sizable chunk of the industry, and up by 4 percent from 2009.
There’s no argument here: blogs are essential to the practice of journalism, yet last year’s debate centered around limiting the definition of journalist, shunning our blogging colleagues who are important to the news business.
So why did we spend so much energy trying to define who a journalist is? The traditional definition of a journalist had been thrown out years ago.
Instead, let’s consider the : define journalism, not journalist.
Even the published only last year, specifically states that the “newsgathering process” is constitutionally protected.
About three months ago, Portnoy also sent to the state Attorney General’s Office language that was being that avoided defining “journalists.” But he said he received no response.
So let’s get to work on defining what exactly that “newsgathering process” entails in Hawaii. It is still a complicated discussion with many questions. Does the process mean having an editor or supervisor check your work? Do you need an audience, and how large?
But that discussion would be far more productive than lingering on an outdated question that already has an answer. Bloggers can be journalists. Independent blogs are media organizations. That’s on the record, let’s move on.
The session just started, and there’s still time to resurrect the shield law. Reporters need it. Bloggers need it.
Hawaii news travels in print, online and through the airwaves, but it also travels through murmurs in the coconut wireless. If there’s any state that needs to protect its people’s right to inform and be informed, it’s Hawaii.
