Citing a qualified reporters' privilege, an attorney for Malia Zimmerman, an editor and reporter at the Web site, Hawai'i Reporter, is attempting to quash a subpoena to turn over her notes and records to attorneys for retired auto dealer Jimmy Pflueger.
Pflueger's attorneys have subpoenaed the records in a case against the state and private companies over the oversight of Kaloko dam on Kaua'i. Pflueger owns property around the dam, which breached last March, killing seven people.
Zimmerman said she will not turn over her records on Thursday, as the subpoena stipulates. She also said she does not plan to appear in person next Friday for a deposition, as a second subpoena demands.
Her attorney, Ted Hong, argues in his motion to quash that Zimmerman has a qualified privilege under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and a similar article in the state Constitution.
Hong said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Hawai'i, has recognized a qualified privilege for reporters to protect the integrity of news gathering.
The court's test, in part, is whether the information being subpoenaed is unavailable elsewhere and is relevant to an important issue in the case.
The Hawai'i Supreme Court has not dealt with a case involving a reporters' privilege since the 1960s.
Zimmerman said she relied on public records for much of her reporting on Kaloko and, in the example of notes or recordings of her interview with Pflueger, that Pflueger himself should know what he said.
Pflueger's attorneys have not returned calls seeking comment, but Hong said he has been told they may argue that Zimmerman is a blogger, not a journalist, and is not entitled to claim a reporters' privilege.
Zimmerman, a former reporter for Pacific Business News and other publications, said she considers herself a journalist.
Her Web site mostly covers politics and business news -- often with a conservative to libertarian view. She also served as a consultant to ABC for a recent "20/20" segment about Kaloko.
"I don't consider myself a blogger," Zimmerman said.
Hawai'i's Newspaper Online 
Sunday, March 21, 2010
