Thanks to the leadership of Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, confidential informants can tell secrets to reporters and not have to worry about courts forcing the journalists to divulge their identities.

A reporter shield law was among a series of pieces of legislation requested by the Republican attorney general that made it into law during the last session.

“We are the 32nd state to enact protections for confidential sources and work product,” he said.

McKenna was in Oak Harbor Wednesday to speak to social studies classes at the high school. He stopped by the News-Times to speak about his successful legislative agenda and other issues.

McKenna said the new reporter shield law, which he began working on last year, is an important tool in maintaining an open and accountable government. The law creates an absolute privilege for confidential sources and a qualified privilege for reporters’ work product.

He said the law will actually have an impact on more people and more news organizations than the average resident may realize. Newspapers commonly receive demands or even threats to turn over a reporter’s notes or to name sources, he said.

“Reporters occupy a special place in society,” McKenna said. He compared the protections in the reporter shield law to those that doctors, attorneys and priests enjoy.

McKenna admitted that some prosecutors were concerned that the privilege would be abused.

“They had a hypothetical concern, but they couldn’t cite any problems in over 30 years,” he said. “We rely on journalists’ exercise of professional judgement.”

McKenna said the law doesn’t cover bloggers, who aren’t considered professional journalists, or cases in federal court.