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dc.contributor.authorFernandez, Joseph
dc.date.accessioned2017-01-30T12:20:27Z
dc.date.available2017-01-30T12:20:27Z
dc.date.created2015-05-20T20:00:42Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.identifier.citationFernandez, J. 2014. Journalists’ confidential sources: Reform lessons from recent Australian shield law cases. Pacific Journalism Review. 20 (1): pp. 117-137.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20663
dc.description.abstract

That journalism, especially journalism delving into serious impropriety, relies heavily upon a journalist’s ability to honour promises of confiden­tiality to sources, and therefore needs protection, has been well acknowledged. Former Attorney-General Philip Ruddock in proposing protec­tion for journalists’ confidential sources—commonly referred to as shield law—in the first such major federal level initiative, said ‘[t]his privilege is an important reform to evidence law’ (Explanatory Memorandum, 2007); and in the circumstances then prevailing ‘the protection of journalists is too important an issue to wait’ (Philip Ruddock, Second Reading Speech, 2007). In one instance the court went so far as to say that the importance of source protection was ‘entirely unexceptionable and in accordance with human experience and common sense’ (Liu, 2010, para 51). Are journalists’ confidential sources better protected with the advent of statutory protection in several Australian jurisdictions? The media does not think so (MEAA, 2013). Former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus observed towards the end of his term of office: ‘Recent court proceedings have highlighted the inadequacy of protections for journalists in some jurisdictions and lack of uniformity in laws across Australia’ (Dreyfus, 2013). The current Commonwealth government in relation to national uniform shield law is unclear. The Australian shield law framework beckons reform and recent events indicate some potential reform areas.

dc.publisherPacific Media Centre, AUT University
dc.relation.urihttp://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=299124904213750;res=IELHSS
dc.subjectshield law
dc.subjectmedia law
dc.subjectconfidential sources
dc.subjectstatutory shield
dc.subjectAustralia
dc.subjectsources
dc.subjectinvestigative journalism
dc.titleJournalists’ confidential sources: Reform lessons from recent Australian shield law cases
dc.typeJournal Article
dcterms.source.volume20
dcterms.source.number1
dcterms.source.startPage117
dcterms.source.endPage137
dcterms.source.issn10239499
dcterms.source.titlePacific Journalism Review
curtin.departmentDepartment of Journalism
curtin.accessStatusFulltext not available


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