Annette Buchanan

In 1966 I was the student managing editor of the University of Oregon Daily Emerald and I decided to run a story titled “Students Condone Marijuana use.” In it I wrote about seven students and their drug habits. Quickly after it ran, the police decided to get involved. They wanted to know names. Why would I give up my fellow classmates? That could not only ruin my reputation as a college students, but also as a reporter. To me, off the record stays off the record. In fact, as a student reporter, I should feel safe in my writing and not have to give up sources. As a reporter, I have the first amendment right and should not have to give up anything unwanted, right?
I had to go to court. I was fined $300, they pried it unwillingly out of my cold hands, and my case was appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court, where the District Attorney had no sympathy for me. Me, a young budding reporter, how could they not have sympathy for me? I was trying to get more readers. This is a huge issue on my campus at the University of Oregon. Apparently the Oregon Constitution does anything but protect me and my reporter rights.
Luckily, for the reporters who follow in my footsteps, of making a scene and not backing down until they subpoena you into doing so, the Oregon Legislative Assembly passed a journalistic shiled law. We can only get in trouble as journalists, according to the Oregon Shield Law, if there is cause that a journalist has or is going to commit a crime, or if the defendant has a defense based on the content.
In March of 1971 my case was revisited by the Eugene Register-Guard by the prosecutor from my case, William Frye. He angrily said that I was “still being glamorized by the press.” And he argued that this new shield law gave the press “not a shield but a sword.” Frye is angered at me for losing my case. Also in this article Robert Notson, publisher of the Portland Oregonian was interviewed. “It is considered the gravest ethical breach for a journalist to violate a confidence,” Notson was quoted. Notson is right. I breached confidence. I was forced to breach confidence. I was told things, in secrecy, about drug users on my campus, an issue that I feel is quite prevalent, and I did not want to break the trust of those that I interviewed.
This has been a rough ride. I have been poked and prodded out of and into things that I did and didn’t want to do. I have paid the fine, I should be left alone. This is unethical for myself as a young journalist. I should not have to give personal information away if it is not harming anyone. These students chose to make terrible decisions, and I chose to report on that. If that means I should be interrogated, what is journalism becoming?