From Penn. Supreme Court - words to live by

It's always nice to start a Monday with some good news, like this today from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (the story actually was last week, but I didn't see it on the Media Info Center feed till today).

Two county commissioners were trying to carve out an exception to the state's shield law in a case where a reporter was given information that they might have been less than cooperative in the grand jury room. Sayeth the court:

The Times-Tribune and Ms. Henn "may indeed have been on the receiving end of a criminal communication, but it was the opening of the speaker's mouth which violated the Grand Jury Act, not the attentiveness of the listener's ears," the court said.

Bottom line, the justices said, is that reporters must be free to report. Nice to see a little common sense to start the week.