Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - 2:00pm
Location:Shields and Privileges: Do Reporters Have Protection from Forced Disclosure of Confidential Sources and Information?
The Journalism Department will hold the Kenneth S. Devol First Amendment Forum on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 2 p.m. in the Flintridge Room of the University Student Union. This year's distinguished panelists will discuss the issues that journalists and bloggers face when protecting confidential sources and information from forced disclosure. Questions abound, including: Who counts as a journalist? And should there be federal privilege? Recent cases on confidentiality, such as the Jana Winter/Aurora notebook case and the Josh Wolf/videotape case, remind us that First Amendment liberties are guaranteed, but cannot be taken for granted.
Panelists will include Jean-Paul Jassy, Frist Amendment attorney, Bostwick & Jassy LLP; Alicia C. Shepard, Journalist and author of Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watgergate (2006); Denver Nicks, Journalist and author of Private: Bradley Manning, Wikileaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History (2012); and Dr. Craig Smith, Director of the Center for First Amendment Studies, California State University, Long Beach, and Professor of Communication Studies at CSULB. The panel will be moderated by Prof. Elizabeth E. Martinez, Assistant Professor, Journalism Department, California State University, Northridge.
The Kenneth S. Devol First Amendment Forum Speakers Series was established in recognition of Dr. Devol’s many years of service to California State University, Northridge. Devol, who retired in 1991, was a faculty member for 30 years, including 12 years as department chair. He earned several awards, including Outstanding Journalism Professor from the California Newspapers Publishers Association in 1984 and the CSUN Distinguished Professor Award in 1985. He founded the CSUN chapter of Kappa Tau Alpha (KTA), the national honorary journalism scholarship society, which was renamed the Kenneth S. Devol chapter in 1996. The author of numerous articles in professional journals, Devol wrote two well-known journalism textbooks. His Mass Media and the Supreme Court has been used in law classes across the U.S.