Category: Journalists’ sources

Copperfastening the right of journalists to protect sources?

| 1 Comment
| Freedom of Expression, Journalists' sources, Media and Communications

Copper nugget, via WikipediaMarie McGonagle, NUI Galway, writes in today’s Irish Times that the judgment in Mahon Tribunal v Keena [2009] IESC 64 (31 July 2009) (also here (pdf)) copperfastens the right of journalists to protect sources (with added links):

The vital public watchdog role of the press was upheld by the Supreme Court

… That decision, particularly as it emanates from a unanimous Supreme Court, must … mark a very significant stage in the development … of legal recognition of the right of journalists to protect their sources.

… Mr Justice Nial Fennelly … proceeded to consideration of the High Court judgment, with which he agreed in many respects. There is no doubt that the High Court judgment was valuable, particularly for its examination of the powers and interests of tribunals under the relevant legislation, and of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Article 10 principles of freedom of expression, including protection of journalists’ sources. Indeed, the High Court accepted that “the non-disclosure of journalistic sources enjoys unquestioned acceptance in our jurisprudence and interference in this area can only happen where the requirements of Article 10(2) . . . are clearly met”. The principle, which had long been denied in Irish law, was, therefore, firmly established.

…

Read More »

So, does Irish law now recognise a journalist source privilege?

| 5 Comments
| ECHR, Freedom of Expression, General, Irish cases, Irish Law, Irish Society, Journalists' sources, Law, US Supreme Court

The Four Courts, by Darragh Sherwin, via Flickr.As I wrote in my previous post, the Supreme Court in Mahon Tribunal v Keena [2009] IESC 64 (31 July 2009) (also here (pdf)) allowed the appeal against the decision of the High Court in Mahon v Keena [2007] IEHC 348 (23 October 2007). Fennelly J delivered the judgment of the Court, in which Murray CJ and Geoghegan, Macken and Finnegan JJ concurred, and its effect is that two Irish Times journalists could decline to answer questions about their sources (unsurprisingly, there is a lot of coverage in that paper: see here, here, here, here and here).

1. Introduction
There are at least three important aspects to Fennelly J’s decision. The first relates to his almost exclusive reliance on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), rather than the Irish Constitution. The second relates to his approach to the issues in general and to his treatment of the High Court judgment in particular: in short, he felt that the High Court had overstated the balance against the appellants. And the third relates to what he had to say about the nature of a journalist source privilege: in short, he preferred to avoid such language in favour simply of a balancing test.…

Read More »

Supreme Court allows journalists’ appeal

| 4 Comments
| Freedom of Expression, Irish Law, Journalists' sources

Irish Times clock, image originally hosted on Irish Times websiteThe Supreme Court has held that two Irish Times journalists can assert a privilege to refuse to answer questions about their sources, reversing the High Court decision in Mahon v Keena [2007] IEHC 348 (23 October 2007). From the Irish Times breaking news website:

Court upholds Mahon appeal

The Supreme Court has upheld an appeal by Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and public affairs correspondent Colm Keena against a court order requiring them to answer questions from the Mahon tribunal about the source of an article about former taoiseach Bertie Ahern. …

Revised: The decision is also noted by Cian on Blurred Keys and is now avaialble as Mahon Tribunal v Keena [2009] IESC 64 (31 July 2009); it is also here (pdf) on the Irish Times website.

See also the Belfast decision in the case of Suzanne Breen and a decision of the Supreme Court of Western Australia earlier this week, both reaching similar conclusions.…

Read More »

No Supreme Court judgment yet in journalists’ sources appeal

| No Comments
| Irish cases, Journalists' sources

Irish Times clock, image originally hosted on Irish Times websiteIt is said that patience is a virtue. It seems that the Supreme Court is determined to make us all virtuous. As we eagerly await their decision in the appeal from the decision of the High Court in Mahon v Keena [2007] IEHC 348 (23 October 2007), it appears we shall have to hold our souls in patience for a while longer. (I think Ambrose Bierce got it right in the wonderfully acerbic Devil’s Dictionary when he defined “patience” as a “minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue”). From today’s Irish Times:

No ruling yet on journalists’ appeal

Mary Carolan

The Supreme Court may rule next month or in the autumn on the appeal by Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and public affairs correspondent Colm Keena against a court order requiring them to answer questions from the Mahon tribunal. The questions relate to the source of an article about financial payments to former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

The two-day appeal concluded before a five-judge Supreme Court last December, when judgment was reserved. Legislation requires that it be listed for review at regular intervals. The Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray yesterday further listed the matter for July 31st, the last day of the existing law term.

…

Read More »

European Charter on Freedom of the Press

| 1 Comment
| Digital Rights, EU media policy, Freedom of Expression, Journalists' sources, Media and Communications
'Silvio Berlusconi and Mara Carfagna, via New York Times
Jörges hands over the Charter to Reding (Photo: EUobserver)

On 25 May 25 2009, 48 editors-in-chief and leading journalists from 19 countries adopted and signed the European Charter on Freedom of the Press in Hamburg. In ten articles, the Charter formulates principles for the freedom of the press from government interference. Yesterday, the Charter was presented to the EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media (hat tip: European Media Blog; see EU press relase).

From the EUobserver:

European press freedom charter launched

In an effort to counter increasing worries about infringement of press freedom by governments in Europe, both within the EU and beyond, the editor-in-chief of Germany’s weekly Stern magazine [Hans-Ulrich Jörges], together with EU media commissioner Viviane Reding on Tuesday (9 June) celebrated the launch of the European Charter on Freedom of the Press … In March, the Open Society Institute‘s media programme – a pressure group focussing on media freedom in emerging democracies – criticised the European Commission in a report that argued that broadcasting across Europe, particularly in the east but also in Italy, is undergoing a “counter-reformation” – a backsliding towards overt political control after the post-Cold War period, when leaders relaxed their grip on TV and radio.

…

Read More »

Journalists’ source privilege: one privilege or two?

| 2 Comments
| Freedom of Expression, Irish cases, journalism, Journalists' sources, Supreme Court of Canada

Journalism Matters banner, from the NUJ website.Journalists’ source privilege is in the air. In the US, the House of Representatives has recently passed a (not particularly readable) Bill recognising a journalists’ source privilege (the Free Flow of Information Act of 2009), and it has been introduced into the Senate. In the UK, a prosecution of a local newspaper journalist and the police source who “leaked” stories to her was recently dismissed (indeed, a similar case against a member of parliament will also not proceed, though another is still pending).

On a judicial level, the Trial Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCCL) (pdf) (noted on the CPJ blog), relying on the earlier decision of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in Prosecutor v Bradjanin and Talic (11 December 2002), held that a Liberian journalist did not have to divulge the names of those who facilitated his access to a war zone. In Sanoma Uitgevers BV v the Netherlands Application no 38224/03 (31 March 2009) (noted in my previous post), building on its seminal and hugely influential decision in Goodwin v UK Application no 17488/90, [1996] ECHR 16 (27 March 1996), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) explored the limits of such a privilege.…

Read More »

The limits of the ECHR’s protection of journalists’ sources

| 3 Comments
| ECHR, Freedom of Expression, Journalists' sources

Fast and Furious movie poster, via WikipediaIn my previous post, I outlined some of the international instruments which provide for the protection of journalists’ sources. The leading court decision on the issue is the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the seminal and hugely influential Goodwin v UK Application no 17488/90, [1996] ECHR 16 (27 March 1996). And in Sanoma Uitgevers BV v the Netherlands Application no 38224/03 (31 March 2009), the Court reaffirmed Goodwin but set out its limits.

Goodwin turned on the interpretation of Section 10 of the Contempt of Court Act, 1981, which provides:

No court may require a person to disclose, nor is any person guilty of contempt of court for refusing to disclose, the source of information contained in a publication for which he is responsible, unless it be established to the satisfaction of the court that disclosure is necessary in the interests of justice or national security or for the prevention of disorder or crime.

In X Ltd v Morgan-Grampian (Publishers) Ltd [1991] 1 AC 1 (HL), the House of Lords held that it was “in the interests of justice” to order a trainee journalist to disclose the identity of a source. However, in Goodwin the ECHR held that this infringed the journalists’ right to freedom of expression in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.…

Read More »

International instruments on the protection of journalists’ sources

| 3 Comments
| Freedom of Expression, journalism, Journalists' sources

Journalists' Source Privilege map via Privacy International World Press Freedom Day is an appropriate day on which to consider the protection of journalists’ sources on the international plane. It is a protection that is embodied in many international instruments. For example, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has always had media freedom at the heart of its operations. Hence, in the Concluding Document of its 1986 Vienna meeting (pdf), principle 40 of the principles relating to Co-operation in Humanitarian and Other Fields commits the member states to

… ensure that, in pursuing this activity, journalists, including those representing media from other participating States, are free to seek access to and maintain contacts with public and private sources of information and that their need for professional confidentiality is respected.

Similarly, principle 3(d) of the Council of Europe Resolution on Journalistic Freedoms and Human Rights (adopted at the 4th European Ministerial Conference on Mass Media Policy, Prague, 7-8 December 1994) calls for

the protection of the confidentiality of the sources used by journalists.

…

Read More »

© cearta.ie 2025. Powered by WordPress