Amnesty International Successfully Asserts Reporter Privilege
Using a test that protects journalists from disclosing sources, a New York federal judge has ruled that Amnesty International does not have to reveal the names of lawyers who complained of being videotaped while talking to Sept. 11 detainees at a Brooklyn lockup.
Judge Viktor Pohorelsky issued the ruling protecting the anonymous lawyers’ names from disclosure on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Amnesty International says the ruling confirms it has the same protections as journalists when reporting on human rights abuses, the Associated Press reports.
Lawyers for jail officials wanted the lawyers’ names to learn whether they knew of the surveillance more than three years before the suit was filed. They contend the statute of limitations bars the suit.
Lawyers for both sides had agreed Amnesty International was protected by the privilege. But Pohorelsky was apparently the first judge to apply the privilege factors to a human rights organization, said a lawyer for Amnesty International, Wallace Neel.
