§ 48:17-19 — Disclosure of contents of communications prohibited; exception

It shall not be lawful for any person connected with any line of telegraph or telephone within this state, whether as superintendent, operator, or in any other capacity whatsoever, to use or cause to be used, or make known or cause to be made known, the contents of any dispatch, message or other communication, of whatsoever nature, which may be sent or received over any line of telegraph or telephone in this state, without the consent of either the party sending or receiving the same; and all such dispatches, messages and other communications shall be transmitted without being made public, or their purport in any manner divulged at any intermediate point, on any pretense whatever. In all respects the same inviolable secrecy, safe-keeping and conveyance shall be maintained by the officers, employees and agents employed on the several telegraph and telephone lines in this state, in relation to all dispatches, messages and other communications which may be sent or received, as is enjoined by the laws of the United States in reference to the ordinary mail service. Nothing in this section contained shall be so construed as to prevent the publication, at any point, of any dispatch, message or communication of a public nature which may be sent by any person with a view to general publicity.