Texas § CR.5 - PRIVILEGE CONCERNING UNPUBLISHED INFORMATION, DOCUMENT, OR ITEM AND NONCONFIDENTI

§ CR.5. PRIVILEGE CONCERNING UNPUBLISHED INFORMATION, DOCUMENT, OR ITEM AND NONCONFIDENTI

PRIVILEGE CONCERNING UNPUBLISHED INFORMATION, DOCUMENT, OR ITEM AND NONCONFIDENTIAL SOURCES. (a) After service of subpoena and an opportunity to be heard, a court may compel a journalist, a journalist's employer, or a person with an independent contract with a journalist to testify regarding or to produce or disclose any unpublished information, document, or item or the source of any information, document, or item obtained while acting as a journalist, other than as described by Section 4, if the person seeking the unpublished information, document, or item or the source of any information, document, or item makes a clear and specific showing that: (1) all reasonable efforts have been exhausted to obtain the information from alternative sources; and (2) the unpublished information, document, or item: (A) is relevant and material to the proper administration of the official proceeding for which the testimony, production, or disclosure is sought and is essential to the maintenance of a claim or defense of the person seeking the testimony, production, or disclosure; or (B) is central to the investigation or prosecution of a criminal case and based on something other than the assertion of the person requesting the subpoena, reasonable grounds exist to believe that a crime has occurred. (b) The court, when considering an order to compel testimony regarding or to produce or disclose any unpublished information, document, or item or the source of any information, document, or item obtained while acting as a journalist, should consider the following factors, including but not limited to whether: (1) the subpoena is overbroad, unreasonable, or oppressive; (2) reasonable and timely notice was given of the demand for the information, document, or item; (3) in this instance, the interest of the party subpoenaing the information outweighs the public interest in gathering and dissemination of news, including the concerns of the journalist; and (4) the subpoena or compulsory process is being used to obtain peripheral, nonessential, or speculative information. (c) A court may not consider a single factor under Subsection (b) as outcome-determinative in the decision whether to compel the testimony or the production or disclosure of the unpublished information, document, or item, or the source of any information, document, or item.