§ 22.023.Privilege

The privilege itself, and its breadth is in one word.

Except as otherwise provided by the subchapter, a body with authority to issue a subpoena or other compulsory process may not compel a journalist to testify regarding or to produce or disclose in an official proceeding: any confidential or nonconfidential information, document, or item obtained or prepared while acting as a journalist, or the source of any such material.

"Nonconfidential" is the word that matters. Many shield laws protect only a promise of confidentiality to a source. Texas protects the journalist's work product as well — unpublished notes, outtakes, drafts, and photographs, whether or not anyone was promised anything.

The reason is practical. A press routinely subpoenaed for its raw material becomes an investigative resource for litigants, and sources grow reluctant whether or not confidentiality was discussed.

"Obtained or prepared while acting as a journalist" ties the protection to the activity rather than to the subject matter. What the journalist saw while reporting is covered; what they saw as a bystander is not.

Subsection (b) closes a corporate route. Compulsory process may not compel the parent, subsidiary, division, or affiliate of a communication service provider or news medium to disclose what is privileged under subsection (a) — so a party cannot obtain from a holding company what it cannot obtain from the newsroom.

The privilege is qualified: the opening words point to the disclosure section, which sets out the six-part showing that overcomes it.