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Prosecutor Claims Medill Students Not Protected by Shield Law

As iMediaEthics has written, an Illinois court has been looking into Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism’s Innocence Project.   The school’s project looked into possible “wrongful convictions,” and specifically, in the case of Anthony McKinney, prosecutors subpoenaed some of the students’ work.

Now, the Chicago Tribune has reported that Assistant State’s Attorney Celeste Stack argues that the Medill students weren’t working as journalists in the “business of collecting news for publication,” but instead they “collected evidence to present in court.”

As such, she is calling for e-mail communication between the students and their professor, David Protess.

According to the Tribune, a judge will issue a ruling on the e-mails Sept. 7.

Hat Tip: Editor & Publisher