Reporter’s Information Subject to Qualified Protection​

A reporter spent four days “autotrekking” with petitioner’s husband a few months before the husband’s death in an “autotrekking” accident. Petitioner subpoenaed the reporter to appear in an action arising from the death of her husband. The First Department ruled the information gathered by the reporter was entitled to qualified protection under the New York Shield Law:

Contrary to petitioner’s contention, all the information she seeks constitutes “unpublished news obtained or prepared by” Coburn, undisputedly a professional journalist, “in the course of gathering or obtaining [the] news” that was ultimately published in the article, and is therefore subject to qualified protection under the New York Shield Law (see Civil Rights Law § 79-h[c]… .

Petitioner failed to make the “clear and specific showing” required to overcome the protection (see Civil Service Law § 79-h[c]). Even assuming that the information she seeks is “highly material and relevant” and “critical or necessary” to the maintenance of her claims, she has not shown that it is unobtainable “from any alternative source” … . Matter of Gilson v Coburn, 2013 NY Slip Op 03177, 1st Dept, 5-2-13