Right to protect sources upheld
Judges in Strasbourg ruled the bid to force the Financial Times, the Times, the Guardian, the Independent and Reuters news agency to hand over confidential reports they obtained about a possible brewery takeover breached their right to protect journalistic sources.
The court said freedom of expression was “one of the essential foundations of a democratic society” and that, in that context, “the safeguards guaranteed to the press are particularly important”.
A High Court ruling in 2001 ordered the newspapers and the newswire agency to reveal the leaked documents they used to publish stories about a possible takeover by the Belgian brewing company Interbrew of its rival, South African Breweries.
The private and confidential details had been leaked by a source known in court as ‘X’.
All five organisations refused to comply with the court order to hand over the documents and, following the dismissal of two appeals, turned to the Strasbourg court, arguing that the Human Rights Convention guaranteed respect for the freedom of expressions.
The ruling awarded the five media organisations costs and damages totalling €180,000.
Commenting on the decision, Irish Secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Seamus Dooley said anything which helps confirms the right of journalists to protect their sources was welcome.
“It builds on previous cases in Europe and it is significant in that the costs were awarded to the media organisations in question,” he said.
Specialist in media law Richard Martin said the ruling would be of great assistance to journalists in terms of knowing the boundaries of what they can do to protect their sources.
“The issue here is that the Irish State has totally failed to bring into law any proper contempt legislation. We are working in a system where journalistic privilege doesn’t really exist in law. We are working with a series of decisions and conventions.
“This decision will be of great assistance in the arsenal of journalists,” he said.
Anthony Dinan, managing director of Thomas Crosbie Holdings, which successfully fought the Mahon Tribunal in the High Court in 2004 to protect a Sunday Business Post source, said he was “delighted” by the ruling.
“It’s a great result for the five newspapers in question and it copper-fastens what we were saying in 2004.
“I was delighted to see it come through and the ruling shows our stance back then was vindicated,” he said.
