§ 22.021.Definitions

Five definitions carrying the Texas shield law, and the second is the one that decides who is protected.

"Journalist" means a person who, for a substantial portion of the person's livelihood or for substantial financial gain, gathers, compiles, prepares, collects, photographs, records, writes, edits, reports, investigates, processes, or publishes news or information disseminated by a news medium or communication service provider.

The test is economic, not institutional. A freelancer qualifies; an employee of a news organisation whose work is unrelated to newsgathering may not. The thirteen listed verbs cover the whole production chain, so a photographer and an editor are as protected as a reporter.

The definition expressly includes a person who supervises or assists in gathering, preparing, and disseminating, and — notwithstanding the livelihood requirement — a person who is or was a journalist, scholar, or researcher employed by an institution of higher education when the information was obtained or prepared. Academic researchers are covered without meeting the economic test.

"News medium" is drawn to survive changes in technology: newspapers, magazines, book publishers, wire services, broadcast, cable, satellite, audio and audiovisual production companies, and Internet companies or providers — disseminating by print, television, radio, photographic, mechanical, electronic, and "other means, known or unknown, that are accessible to the public."

"Communication service provider" reaches telecommunications carriers, information services, interactive computer services, and information content providers as the federal Communications Act defines them.

"Official proceeding" is any administrative, executive, legislative, or judicial proceeding before a public servant, including a Rule 202 proceeding — the pre-suit deposition, expressly named so it cannot be used to route around the privilege.