Informācijas avotu aizsardzība – žurnālista tiesības vai pienākums?

International law provides strong protection to journalists enabling them to refuse to divulge their confidential sources of information. However, there may be situations when a journalist is willing to expose the name of a confidential informant who had tried to manipulate the journalist by passing on false information. The article strives to determine whether protection of sources from journalist’s perspective is an absolute duty or it is a right that the journalist can choose to enforce depending on the particular situation. The author provides an insight into different approaches of ethical and legal requirements related to journalist’s right and duty to protect sources and concludes that an absolute duty should be avoided.

Journalists and Confidential Sources: Colliding Public Interests in the Age of the Leak, Joseph M. Fernandez (2021)

Review of: Journalists and Confidential Sources: Colliding Public Interests in the Age of the Leak, Joseph M. Fernandez (2021) Abingdon: Routledge, 300 pp., ISBN 978-0-36747-412-6, h/bk, $252.00 ISBN 978-1-00303-541-1, ebk, $63.89

Pass the Source—Journalism’s Confidentiality Bane in the Face of Legislative Onslaughts

‘Journalism under siege’ proclaimed the cover of The Walkley Magazine, an Australian publication dedicated to promoting journalism excellence in its March 2017 issue. This headline reflects the severe disruption journalism is experiencing globally. Facts used to be facts and news was news but now we have ‘alternative facts’ and ‘fake news’ (Media Watch, 2017). Against this backdrop, a persistent dilemma for journalism has been the impact of the law on journalists relying on confidential sources who play a critical part in providing access to information. The journalism profession’s apparent source protection gains have been undermined by legislative and other assaults, and it has had a chilling effect on journalists’ contacts with confidential sources. The Australian journalists’ union, the Media Alliance, has warned that ‘it is only a matter of time’ before a journalist is convicted for refusing to disclose a confidential source (Murphy, 2017, p. 3). This article builds on earlier work examining how Australian journalists are coping in their dealings with confidential sources. This article (a) reports on the findings from an Australian study into journalists’ confidential sources and (b) identifies lessons and reform potentials arising from these findings.