Why Shielding Sources Is Important


	Why Shielding Sources Is Important

Carl Lavin

3-23-2008 8:20 AM

1846 views

Carl Lavin says:

Reporters often need confidential sources to learn about high-level wrongdoing. If that reporting method loses its power, it's not just journalism that will suffer.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/371ff99a-4eae-4b40-b0f5-d7cffb17f7e1/3B010E81-E824-4570-A023-05F85FB52387/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/mark_bowden/20080323_The_Point__Media_-_and_public_-_need_strong_shield_law.html" href="http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/mark_bowden/20080323_The_Point__Media_-_and_public_-_need_strong_shield_law.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.philly.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/mark_bowden/20080323_The_Point__Media_-_and_public_-_need_strong_shield_law.html">Hatfill's legitimate interest in finding out who was trashing him in the Justice 
Department is not as important as Loci's need to protect her sources. This is 
one of the places in our democracy where two important priorities collide. 
Judges have a legitimate interest in finding the truth, while society benefits 
greatly from an unfettered press. If Watson's unprecedented penalty against Loci 
is upheld, Hatfill may come closer to collecting well-deserved damages, but at 
an absurdly high cost. The blow to journalism might be the worst in U.S. 
history.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/mark_bowden/20080323_The_Point__Media_-_and_public_-_need_strong_shield_law.html"><P>Reporters have long faced the prospect of imprisonment for protecting sources, but few would hazard everything they own. Without some legal protections, and without the financial protection of a newspaper, magazine or network, little investigative reporting would get done.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/3B010E81-E824-4570-A023-05F85FB52387/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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