On the face of it it looks like Dutch law is catching up with the modern world a bit. From the NRC Handelsblad:
New law will protect sources of bloggers
Published: 5 November 2008 15:34 | Changed: 5 November 2008 16:33By our news staff
Journalists, bloggers and other opinion-makers are to get the legal right to protect their sources under new legislation published by justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin on Tuesday.
The minister has decided not to impose a strict definition of a ‘journalist’ so that other people can join public debates.
But Hirsch Ballin stressed that there could be occasions when the public interest may outweigh the right to protect confidential sources and that a judge will have to make a ruling in these cases.
The right of journalists to protect their sources is to be enshrined into Dutch law following a warning from the European court for Human Rights last year. The warning came after Dutch reporter Koen Voskuil was held in custody for 18 days for refusing to reveal the identity of a source.
“… there could be occasions when the public interest may outweigh the right to protect confidential sources”. What occasions, and who decides what the criteria are? Are they to be left to judicial discretion, or will they be pre-decided by politicians?
This move might look sensible on the face of it, but by blurring the lines between blogging and journalism, ordinary unpaid citizens without the clout of a large media organisation behind them who write about political or financial malfeasance may well find themselves under the close and unwelcome scrutiny of the courts and security services, without the legal resources to defend themselves.
But maybe that’s the idea.
