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PROTECTING JOURNALISTS' SOURCES

Contempt of Court:

The Contempt of Court Act 1981 recognises the public interest in allowing journalists to protect their sources. S10 of the Act states:

No court may require a person to disclose, nor is any person guilty of contempt of court for refusing to disclose, the source of information contained in a publication for which he is responsible, unless it is established to the satisfaction of the court that disclosure is necessary in the interests of justice or national security or for the prevention of disorder or crime

Police searches

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act lays down the special procedure necessary before police can search for 'material acquired or created for the purpose of journalism' which could be used as evidence where a serious arrest able offence has been committed .

There are two options open to the police. One is to apply to a circuit judge for an order to force the disclosure of the material. The other is to apply for a search warrant in order to seize the material.

In both situations the judge has to be satisfied that:

• There are grounds for believing a serious arrest able offence has been committed
• The evidence would be admissible at a trial for that offence and would be of substantial value to the investigation
• Other methods of obtaining the material had been tried without success or not tried because it appeared they would be bound to fail
• Its disclosure would be in the public interest

When the police apply for an order the newspaper can be represented at the hearing and the judge cannot order that documents or records which a person holds in confidence be disclosed.

When police apply for a search warrant he newspaper does not have to be told of the application neither does it have the right to be represented when the application is made.

Armed with a warrant the police could also seize the confidential documents or records which are exempted under the order procedure.

efore the judge can grant a warrant he must be satisfied that the grounds (above) for ordering the production of the material are in place. He must also be satisfied that one of the following four circumstances apply:

• It is not practicable to communicate with anyone entitled to grant entry to the premises
• It is not practicable to communicate with anyone entitled to grant access to the material
• The material contains information which statute states is secret or restricted.
• That information is likely to be disclosed if a warrant is not issued OR
• To serve notice of an order (above) may seriously prejudice the investigation

Listening Devices

The police have the power under the Police Act 1997 to break into premises and place listening devices if they believe that so doing will help them investigate serious crime.

The Police Act 1997 states that a chief constable or, in urgent cases, an assistant chief constable can authorise the break-in if they think it is likely to be of substantial value in the prevention or detection of serious crime. The bugging has at some stage to be authorised by a commissioner appointed under the Police Act. A commissioner - usually an existing or retired High Court judge - can order the operation to be abandoned if he regards the bugging to be 'blatantly' unreasonable.

Official Secrets Act

A chief officer of police is authorised to ask the Home Secretary for permission to require a person to furnish information if there are grounds for suspecting that espionage has been committed.

Anyone who fails to hand over the information, or knowingly gives false information, is guilty of an offence under the Act.

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