While lack of such a law would seem to aid law enforcement, the state's top prosecutor has allied with local media attorneys to lobby for a court rule to protect reporters' sources.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff addressed the Utah Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence, which voted to study the issue further.

Shurtleff - who claims a free flow of information is the best way to keep democracy alive - said he also will try to get a so-called shield law bill before the 2006 Legislature.

"It's a long-standing privilege and we ought to recognize it," said Shurtleff, who emphasized the need for a rule or statute that sources, reporters, prosecutors and judges can all turn to for guidance.

Shurtleff said the knee-jerk reaction from legislators has been, "Reporters are not above the law."

And while many law enforcement officials have been incredulous, Shurtleff said they of all people should understand the value of confidential sources.

When sources go to reporters rather than police, "law enforcement can still collect evidence on a case,” Shurtleff said, "even if they don't know the original source."

Attorney Michael O'Brien, representing The Salt Lake Tribune, said news stories about Watergate, the Pentagon Papers and Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison all resulted from confidential news sources.

Said media attorney Jeffrey J. Hunt: "You want to encourage sources to talk to reporters about matters important to the public."

Hunt said having Shurtleff on the side of the media "signals the importance of this issue. It's not the media versus law enforcement."

Shurtleff, a Republican, got involved in the issue last spring when he helped rally a bipartisan group of attorneys general from 33 states and the District of Columbia to submit a friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

Miller went to jail for refusing to testify about the unauthorized leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity. The Supreme Court ultimately refused to hear the case.