There is currently a debate over shield laws, which are meant to protect journalists from having to reveal their anonymous sources.
According to the Student Press Law Center website, Wyoming is the only state that does not have either a law protecting journalists from giving up their sources or a state court ruling to do the same. Journalists in Wyoming make promises of confidentiality at their own risk.
“Beyond just shield laws, we need some more protection for journalists period,” John Ehrhart, director of news at KCWY and advocate for shield laws, said. “Because right now we are in a stand-still over efforts just to get information around here.”
Ehrhart said the recent firing of a police chief in Evansville and how the reason was buried, is an example of an attitude that some in the government have. That at times they view the press as a convenient lap dog, rather than a check on government power.
“Any time that you can have some more balances on any kind of arm of government, I think it is a good thing,” Ehrhart said. “They tend to forget for whom they work and just want to proceed in whatever way they perceive as the best way to go and not necessarily best in terms of serving the people of the state.”
Bob Bonnar, editor of the News Letter Journal, had an opposing viewpoint, he said that he opposes shield laws.
“It’s about trust,” Bonnar said. “I think there is too much use of anonymous sources already. I would hate to see that expanded in our industry.”
Bonnar said that he is a very strong advocate of the Wyoming Press Association’s lobbying efforts in the state legislature to push through more laws that increase governmental transparency. He believes that one of the reasons why national trust in newspapers is so low is because of the use of anonymous sources.
“If a story is important enough to tell with an anonymous source, it should be important enough to the reporter to spend a few days in protest in a jail cell,” Bonnar said.
Dr. Taylor Hanes, a candidate for the governor’s office in the Republican primary, said he supports shield laws in areas that are not related to crimes.
“A free press is very important,” Hanes said. “So, under the first amendment journalists have the right to print and say whatever. However, if there is a crime involved then you can’t keep your sources anonymous.”
Hanes said that you should not be forced to print your source but report it to the authorities. He said that in that situation, when the government approaches the source that the journalist would be kept anonymous and that this should only be done in situations involving a felony.
Hanes said that you should not be forced to publish who your source is in your own publication, but under his proposed framework, you would have to report felony crimes to the state government and your source.
