By AP/KWMU.
Jefferson City, MO. – A new proposal would give Missouri journalists a tool to protect their confidential sources and unpublished notes.
The legislation would allow reporters not to testify about confidential sources and to refuse to turn over unpublished notes unless the information can only be
learned through the reporter and is vital to the public interest.
It's sponsored by Senator Chuck Graham, a Columbia Democrat, and Senator Jason Crowell, a Republican from Cape Girardeau.
Jean Maneke is a Kansas City attorney representing the Missouri Press Association.
She says this is the first push for a Missouri shield law in some time -- and follows a year in which courts ordered more reporters than usual to testify about their sources and notes.