Mina EleVibe’s Newsroom
By Aminah Usman
In order to report news, it often mainly depends on a journalist’s ability to protect the confidentiality of news sources. No matter what the circumstances are, the promise of anonymity to any person comes first.
If there happens to be a delicate situation, in references to anonymity, that emerges the court can take one of several approaches:
- “ The judge will simply preclude the journalist from relying on the anonymous source for any part of his or her defense. This prohibition includes a bar on merely telling the judge or jury that the reporter did, in fact, have sources for the information.”
- “Some judges will assume at the outset of the proceeding, and instruct juries deliberating the case to presume likewise, that there was no source for the information attributed to an anonymous source.”
- “In the worst-case scenario, a court could issue a default judgment against an author or publisher who refused to reveal a confidential source.”
However, the use of confidential sources should always be avoided whenever possible. Even though, a source’s identity could aid in negating one's allegation; that a publisher acted with reckless disregard when relying on the source’s information, Journalist must stick to the rules. Aside from legal proceedings, naming anonymous sources, ruins the credibility of any Journalist, no matter how well they cover the story.
It is important to never rely solely on the premise of confidential sources’ accounts when creating a story. However, it is also just as important to discuss the scope of confidentiality with your source, before anything within our newsroom.
Thus, if anyone within this newsroom promises a source they will not reveal their identity than they must stick to their word; even if they face legal difficulties.
