New Jersey high court rules bloggers cannot use shield law to protect sources

[JURIST] The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled [opinion, PDF] unaimously Tuesday that a blogger does not have the same privilege to protect her sources as other journalists in traditional media. The court found that a New Jersey "shield law" [NJSA 2A:84A-21–21.8] allowing reporters to protect the confidentiality of their sources could not be invoked by a blogger who posted comments on an Internet message board. Shellee Hale founded a website called Pornafia.com in which she intended to reveal alleged illegal…