Reorg Research case tests limit of NY shield law

An appeals court will soon rule whether New York’s shield law will protect Reorg Research from disclosing sources of stories it published about Murray Energy, reports Alan Feuer of the New York Times.

Feuer writes, “The case began in August when Reorg Research Inc., a Manhattan-based corporate intelligence company, sent two news alerts to its subscribers — many of them hedge fund managers and professional investors — with breaking articles about Murray Energy Corporation, one of the country’s largest coal mining operations. The alerts, both of which were based on information from anonymous sources, claimed that Murray had recently reached an important collective bargaining agreement with its workers and described some details of internal negotiations that the company had held with its debt holders.

“According to court filings, executives at Murray suspected that the unnamed sources were some of its own investors who, the executives believed, had revealed the information despite having signed confidentiality agreements. And in September, the company sought an order from a New York State Supreme Court judge to force Reorg to disclose the investors’ identities so that Murray could sue them for breach of contract.

“Murray Energy has a history of waging legal battles against media organizations.”

Read more here.