A Journalist

1
A Journalists Privilege

• The Ethics of Using Confidential Sources

2
Reasons to Use Confidential Sources

• Disclosing Identity would expose informer to
  harm.
• Corruption in own organization (loss of
  livelihood)
• High-level policy disagreements
• Police and military retaliation
• Allows for government officials to speak more
  candidly

3
Problems with Confidential Sources

• Lack of Transparency
• Transparency is honest and fair
• Denies important information to reader
• Often used for personal or partisan attack
• Used for speculative purposes
• Invoked for trivial comment

4
Background Facts

• 49 states have shield laws offering some
  protection to reporters from turning over
  sources.
• Federal protections for reporters shielding
  sources are weaker than in most states.
• More than two dozen subpoenas have been issued in
  the past two-and-a-half years to obtain
  reporters notes.
• Approximately 500 cases involving reporters
  privilege have been litigated in the last 30
  years.

5
Example Cases

• OJ Simpson Case
• Novak Plame
• Wen Ho Lee
• WJAR
• New York Times Islamic Charity
• Lewinsky/Clinton scandal

6
Branzburg v Hayes

• Supreme Court decision (1972) in which justices
  ruled 5-4 that the First Amendment does not
  shield journalist from cooperating with grand
  jury subpoenas.
• A concurring opinion by Judge Powell, called for
  a case-by-case evaluation balancing all citizens
  obligation to give testimony with press freedom.

7
Branzburg v. Hayes Questions

• Is it the obligation of all citizens to provide
  evidence they have of criminal wrongdoing?
• Does this law undermine the 1st amendment?

8
Novak Plame Case
Syndicated columnist, Robert Novak, printed the
name of a Valerie Plame, a CIA agent. Exposing a
secret agent may be a federal crime. Novak has
not publicly stated the source of this
information. There is a federal
investigation regarding the source of this
information.
9
Novak Plame Case
An appeals court has ordered Judith Miller of the
New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time to
describe to a grand jury how they learned the
identity of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame. If
they refuse, they'll face 18 months in jail.
10
Novak Plame Questions

• Should Novak, Miller and Cooper disclose their
  source?
• Did Novak allow an attacker to hide behind
  anonymity?
• If a journalist is duped or lied to by a source,
  should they revoke promised anonymity?
• Does anonymity allow manipulation of the press?

11
Guidelines for Using Confidential Sources

• Overwhelming public concern
• No other way to get the essential information
• Source must have verifiable and first-hand
  knowledge of the story (information must be
  proven true).
• Willing to reveal to the public why source cannot
  be named.

12
Should this confidential source by used?