Term privilege has several meanings in U.S. law. In the context you are using it, a reporter’s privilege means that the reporter would not have to reveal the sources of information for a story he/she wrote and could not be compelled to reveal that information in court. In short, it is simply a right to refuse to divulge the information to the government (or anyone else). That’s it. It simply protects the reporter from having to disclose the information himself/herself. It does not extent to allow the reporter to prevent disclosure of information about his sources by someone else, including the government. So if the government has information that would expose his contacts and the government wishes to release it, or is required to release it under an open records law, the reporter’s privilege does not cover that situation and the reporter could not prevent the release of that information.

