• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, April 5, 2010

The Kansas state legislature has passed a new reporters' shield law that is exceptionally friendly to online journalists.

The measure limits judges' ability to force journalists to testify about information they have collected while engaged in reporting. And in a provision law hailed as favorable to new media, the measure defines journalists as people who report for traditional outlets as well as those who do so for online journals "in the regular business of newsgathering and disseminating news or information to the public."

On Monday, the bill was sent to Gov. Mark Parkinson's office for his signature. He has until April 15 to either approve or veto the measure. The bill passed in the Senate by a vote of 39-1 and in the House by 116-3, providing more than the two-thirds margin necessary to override any potential veto.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, praised the measure for explicitly protecting Web reporters.

"It's as good as you're ever going to get," she said of the bill's definition of journalists. "It describes the function of journalism as best as it can and then it tries to incorporate people who do journalism regularly in any form -- whether it be print, broadcast, Internet or posting a sheet of toilet paper to a bulletin board."

Most states protect journalists' ability to protect sources, but not all explicitly cover online journalists or amateurs. In some states, only people who glean income from specific types of media outlets qualify for the protection.

Congress is considering enacting a federal shield law, but there's been debate in Washington about whether the measure should only protect those who glean substantial income from reporting and writing, or if it also should apply to bloggers, citizen journalists and others engaged in newsgathering.

The current version of the pending Senate bill says that people engaged in newsgathering and dissemination can protect their confidential sources in some situations, but Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) have attempted to define journalists as people working for news organizations.

The new Kansas law comes in the wake of a hard-fought battle about whether Claire O'Brien, a former reporter for Gatehouse Media's Dodge City Daily Globe, would have to testify about a jailhouse interview she conducted with a murder suspect. She opposed a subpoena in the case, but the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that she had to testify at the defendant's trial, the Citizen Media Law Project reported.