A Journalist’s Privilege
The Ethics of Using Confidential
Sources
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
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
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
reporter’s notes.
 Approximately 500 cases involving reporter’s
privilege have been litigated in the last 30 years.
Example Cases
 OJ Simpson Case
 Novak – Plame
 Wen Ho Lee
 WJAR
 New York Times – Islamic
Charity
 Lewinsky/Clinton scandal
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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
Should this confidential
source by used?