Protecția surselor jurnalistice – o perspectivă europeană cu reverberații în planul procedurii penale și litigiilor civile naționale
Protection of Journalists’ Sources – a European Perspective with Reverberations in National Criminal Proceedings and Civil Disputes

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays, democracy and freedom of expression are inextricably linked. Moreover, information represents the central element around which political, social and economic life revolve, hence gathering it and further disseminating it to the public become increasingly important due to its notable impact. For this reason, journalists’ activity, especially the investigation ones, is essential in order to achieve the democratic ideals of encouraging the environment of public debate, which in turn justifies the protection conferred to their sources of information. Should judicial procedures be initiated, sources’ confidentiality appears to be endangered. How will the conflict of values thus triggered be solved, that is the conflict between the public interest of maintaining freedom of press and the private interest of secrecy of sources of information? The present paper aims to put forth a series of possible answers for solving this dilemma, in accordance with European standards regarding freedom of expression. More specifically, this analysis envisages to contribute to the understanding of the legal nature of journalist’s intellectual creation. Furthermore, it emphasizes the particularities of the order of disclosure both in national criminal procedure and in civil proceedings and it highlights at the same time some potential comparative law insights, stemming from legal systems of other states (Canada, Latvia, Austria, Estonia).

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