Journalist's Privilege to Keep the Identity of His or Her Sources Secret

If reporters can guarantee anonymity, they will not believe journalists who often disclose information sources, as many whistleblowers only provide information to journalists. Therefore, individuals begin hiding their knowledge, which in turn will produce "cold effects". "Cooling effect" occurs when the free flow of information is restricted and information that is publicly available is small. However, this situation is undesirable as people have the right to know as much as possible.

There is confidentiality in the interaction between journalists and sources, and even as journalists are required to keep confidential identity of identity of secret information providers secret by expanding freedom of press, journalists can protect legal protection You can receive it. Or was imprisoned. In the United States, there is no right to protect sources of information in federal courts. However, the Federal Court refuses to force journalists to disclose information sources unless the information requested by the court is highly relevant to the incident and there is no other way to obtain it. State courts provide such protection to varying degrees. Even a journalist who was asked for a testimony with a trial and a fine, or contempt of imprisonment. Since it is impossible to ascertain whether the information is valid or not, the reliability of the journalist in keeping the news secret also risks.

"Since the decision of Branzburg v. Hayes over 40 years ago the court has not considered whether journalists have the right not to disclose the identity of confidential sources.The lower court is trying to explain Brandsburg's inconsistent principle James Lissen, a journalist in the appeals of the New York Times, filed a suit in the Supreme Court in January, suspended the subpoena and forced him to compromise the US I testified his source in his secret concerning secret efforts. Iranian government

The imprisonment of Vanessa Leggett highlights the problems that journalists have been facing for decades. To abandon your source or to imprison. Most state and federal governments have certain journalist privileges (right to deny testimony) to allow journalists to keep their sources secret. However, in each jurisdiction the rights parameters are different. Sometimes, this privilege is based on the law - protection laws issued by the legislature. In other cases, the court granted the privilege based on constitutional rights. Some privileges contain information that is not confidential, but some are not included. There are freelances in some states, but not other states.