Now this interesting. Hawaii could be blazing the 21st century trail on the shield law. Stay tuned. Where was California?

State Sen. Brian Taniguchi, D-10th (Mänoa, McCully), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee, asked news media and law enforcement leaders to meet by Friday to see if there is potential for a compromise on a proposed shield law for reporters.The main issues in dispute:*How to cover bloggers or citizen journalists. The state Attorney General’s office believes the bill is so broad it would protect bloggers, people who pass out leaflets, or one-time posters on Internet Web sites.

*Whether a three-part balancing test for disclosure of information should apply to civil or criminal cases. The test requires the party seeking the disclosure to show by convincing evidence that the information is unavailable despite the exhaustion of all reasonable alternatives, is noncumulative, and is necessary and relevant to the case.

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