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North Carolina · N.C. Gen. Stat. 14-371
Quote checked October 14, 2026 Text match only; current legal status and enforcement not verified.
“If any person wrongfully obtains, or attempts to obtain, any knowledge of a telegraphic message by connivance with a clerk, operator, messenger, or other employee of a telegraph company, or, being such clerk, operator, messenger, or other employee, willfully divulges to any but the person for whom it was intended, the contents of a telegraphic message or dispatch intrusted to him for transmission or delivery, or the nature thereof, or willfully refuse or neglect duly to transmit or deliver the same, he shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.”
This section doesn't print a penalty of its own. Other parts of the North Carolina General Statutes may set one; we haven't looked them up, so we don't state one here.
“(1889, c. 41, s. 1; Rev., s. 3846; C.S., s. 4498; 1993, c. 539, s. 249; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c).)”
The earliest year in this note is 1889. That's the earliest year the note prints. It doesn't establish when this wording was enacted, took effect or first appeared.
Our reading
The section covers telegraph company employees, such as clerks, operators and messengers, who willfully disclose an entrusted message's contents or nature to someone other than its intended recipient, and outsiders who wrongfully obtain or attempt to obtain knowledge of a message through connivance with an employee. It also covers willful refusal or neglect to transmit or deliver the message. Any of these is a Class 2 misdemeanor.
Written by Silly Rules from the quoted text above. It's a plain reading, not legal advice. We haven't researched how courts read this section or how often anyone enforces it.
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Every quote on this site was matched against its official page on October 14, 2026. Text match only; current legal status and enforcement not verified.