Journalists have the right not to disclose the identity of their sources.
The right not to reveal journalistic sources
The protection of journalistic sources is one of the key rights that journalists have in order to exercise their freedom of expression and to fulfil their function as a ‘’public watchdog”.
Without such protection, journalists’ sources may refrain from helping them to fulfil their function. Journalists have this right regardless of whether their sources obtained the information legally or illegally.
The right not to reveal their sources protects journalists not only from specific orders to reveal the name of the source, but also from actions by the police or some other public authority which could lead to the identification of the source.
The journalist or the publisher is allowed to reveal their sources only upon the explicit consent of the person who has provided the information or, in case of the death of that person upon the consent of his/her close relative.
example The police cannot order a journalist to provide documents containing a lead to the identification of the source, listen in on a journalist’s phone conversations or search his/her house and data storage devices.
However, the secrecy of journalistic sources is not absolute and can be restricted in exceptional circumstances:
Restrictions
A journalist may be required to reveal his/her sources only in exceptional circumstances, if it is needed to protect a vital interest, namely, with the aim of preventing a serious crime with a wite exceeding ten years or a corruption crime.
example The need to identify the person (source) who leaked a company’s confidential corporate plan or information in a highly sensitive criminal case, would not automatically be considered to be in the overriding public interest, justifying the disclosure of journalistic sources.