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.
As they investigate sensitive issues, unveil disturbing truths and question policies, journalists find themselves in the firing line of those directly or indirectly exposed by their reports. … On World Press Freedom Day, the World Association of Newspapers will present the story of many journalists whose work upsets and can sometimes undo the powerful. What do they report on, how and at what price? …
The position worldwide is disquieting. First Amendment Law Prof reproduces some sobering statisticss from the annual Freedom House report (pdf | html, from which the map of press freedom at the start of this paragraph is taken):
* 2009 marked the seventh straight year in declining press freedom worldwide;
* over 80% of the world’s inhabitants live in a country where the press is either “not free” or only “partly free” to operate;
* Israel, Italy and Hong Kong, fell to “partly free” because of increased threats to media independence and diversity;
* the U.S. fell one spot to #18 for the same reason;
* Iraq, at #148, is still “not free.”
According to the tables (pdf), the free-est is Iceland, and the least free is North Korea; Ireland is equal fourteenth worldwide, and twelfth in Western Europe. But this is no reason for complacency. On the Index on Censorship blog yesterday, Michael Foley wrote:
It might be fanciful, but what better way to celebrate World Press Freedom Day than for governments to acknowledge the fundamental and central role journalism plays in democracy and in creating a democractic culture. Would it not be good if on this day governments said they would desist from announcing legislation that slowly chips away at press freedom?
In Ireland we are about to have a blasphemy law and privacy legislation introduced, unless, in the unlikely event, there is a successful campaign against it. We have seen our freedom of information legislation made less effective and editors have been harrassed in order to have sources revealed. The press has waited 18 years for libel reform, since a Law Reform Commission recommended changes in 1991. …
The Cowengatecontroversy certainly caught the imagination this week; and, by way of update to my earlierposts on the topic, I’ve collected some more links about the affair below. Perusing the coverage in print, broadcast, and online, a question has repeatedly occurred to me: for all that there was online outrage, how much of it was reflected in the print or broadcast media? My impression is that whilst online commentary reflected and often relied upon the print or broadcast media, there was (by and large) very little traffic the other way. Is this a fair assessment? Answers, please, in the comments below.
[The remainder of the post is another compendium of links relating to the Cowengate controversy]. Read the rest of this entry »
Spirit Moves is a discussion programme on RTÉ Radio which explores ethical issues that arise from current news events. It is broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 on Sunday evenings at 6:00pm; it is re-broadcast on RTÉ Choice (one of RTÉ’s Digital Radio Stations) on Monday afternoons at 4:00pm; and episodes -including this – are available to stream here. This evening’s programme discussed the ethical and legal issues that arise in the context of reporting suicide. The host was Tom McGurk, and the participants included Colum Kenny, Joan Freeman, Paul Drury, Tom Clonan, and Lisa O’Carroll.
The Press Council has recently published a very interesting Discussion Document (pdf) on the issue. As I’ve previously argued on this blog, the key point is that much of the reason for sensationalist media coverage (that sells papers or delivers audience share) is because we – the general public – buy the papers and listen to or watch the programmes. We can’t just blame the media for sensationalist reporting. If we – as readers, listeners or viewers – weren’t interested in the prurient details, then the media wouldn’t report them. These issues may interest the public, but it doesn’t follow that it is in the public interest to report them. This is especially true where people are thrust unwillingly by tragedy into the limelight. If the Press Council can navigate a clear course on this issue, it will certainly make a very important contribution to the development of appropriate ethical reporting standards in Ireland.
Not only will the Irish Supreme Court have the opportunity on the appeal in Mahon v Keena[2007] IEHC 348 (23 October 2007) (discussed here and here by Daithí) to discuss the constitutional protections, if any, for journalists’ sources, but I learn from The Court that the Supreme Court of Canada will also have a similar opportunity this term on the appeal in R v The National Post2008 ONCA 139 (CanLII):
The Supreme Court is set to decide whether confidential sources for newspaper reporters are entitled to a claim of privilege similar to that of confidential police informants. The case of National Post v. R. … will settle a long-standing grey area in Canadian media law, but to get there, the SCC will be asked to mediate between the conflicting public interests of investigating crime on the one hand, and the freedom of the press on the other. …
The Canadian case turns on whether a journalist can assert privilege over a bank document received from a confidential source which disclosed highly incriminating evidence of a conflict of interest by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in a property scandal which the bank and M Chrétien claimed was fabricated. In R v McClure2001 SCC 14 (CanLII), (2001) 151 CCC (3d) 321 the Supreme Court said that the confidentiality of the relationship between a journalist and the journalist’s source may be protected on a case-by-case basis. However, in applying the test set out in McClure, the Ontario Court of Appeal held against the privilege in The National Post case; in particular, on the question of whether the injury to the relationship between journalist and source from the disclosure of the communications is greater than the benefit gained from the correct disposal of the litigation, the Court focussed on
the fact that his document was potentially fabricated to stir up controversy surrounding the Prime Minister of Canada, … [and] found that the benefits of getting to the truth were ‘overwhelming.’ The interest in protecting confidential sources, meanwhile was ‘attenuated’ by the fact that in this case the media was “shielding a potential wrongdoer from prosecution for a serious crime.”
The outcomes of the appeals will make for an interesting pair of cases, not just in relation to the similarities of fact but in particular in relation to the law on journalists’ sources.
Politicians are ‘crusading’ for stricter privacy laws despite just one-in-five formal complaints coming from the public. A survey of Irish journalism reveals that two thirds of privacy complaints against newspapers and broadcasters come from public figures, particularly politicians, with only one fifth from private citizens. …
News reporting in the Irish media is virtually free of gratuitous racism, a symposium on ethics and journalism heard yesterday. Journalist Dr Simon Bourke told the conference at Dublin City University that no complaint of racism had ever been upheld by the Press Council or Broadcasting Complaints Commission … Dr Bourke presented to yesterday’s meeting his analysis of ethical controversies involving the media since 1973. Allegations of invasion of privacy emerged as the single largest issue, accounting for 71 of the 140 cases identified. …
“We just want to make as much money as possible, we know dirt sells,” Ray Senior, owner of photo agency VIP Ireland, told the symposium. His agency pursues photographs of celebrities.
- Historically, a large majority of complaints of ‘unethical journalism’ in all forums had no identifiable ethical basis. …
- Of complaints with an arguably ethical basis, invasion of privacy (54%) and intrusion upon grief (28%) and conflict of interest (7%) formed the bulk. …
- The evidence suggests that the emphasis on privacy issues in the public discourse on journalistic ethics is being led by public figures and, particularly, by politicians. Two-thirds of invasion of privacy complaints in all forums were from public figures. One-third came from private citizens, and only a fifth (21%) actually concerned private citizens. …
Posted elsewhere (some of my recent posterous posts)
My posterous site is a companion to this blog: anything that catches my eye on the wild wild web that's too long for twitter but too short for a normal post here will (probably - eventually) end up over there.
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
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