Abstract
The prickly subject of source protection took centre stage once more towards the end of last year in the United States when a slew of court actions demanding that reporters reveal sources saw journalists awarded jail sentences and, subsequently, the introduction of a federal "shield" law that would provide "absolute protection" for confidential sources. Democrat senator Christopher Dodd's "Free Speech Protection Act of 2004" is designed to prevent the compelled disclosure of sources ? "regardless of whether or not the source was promised confidentiality". Source protection remains a dilemma throughout journalism and if print journalism is to survive as a truly free press in the third millennium, it will have to re-define the extent to which it can genuinely protect those on the cutting edge of serious investigative research. A starting point to establishing the rights of the investigative reporter is a workable policy on source protection and the acknowledgement of the need to protect genuine confidential sources...whatever the price
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