The Azeri Media Rights Institute has prepared a draft law proposal “On Protection of Confidentiality of Journalist Sources.” According to the draft law, journalists cannot be forced to reveal their correspondence, notes and documents. (25-MAR-2008)
Placed on website by Shahla Ismayilova/ HRH Azerbaijan on the basis of materials from IRFS
Journalist can only be forces if the event that the required information is connected to is a serious crime that creates fear for the integrity of one or more people. When a journalist agrees to the decision to reveal the source, authoritative bodies have to limit the scale of sources revealed and try to respect the confidentiality of the source.
Studied European Laws
The purpose of this law is to define the conditions, principles and regulations to protect the confidentiality of journalists’ sources. The organization has studied laws of European countries and Belgium during the preparation of the draft law.
It is not possible to encompass all of the legal norms to regulate journalists’ source protection in one law. That is why the Media Rights Institute suggests removing article 11 from the law on mass media and making some changes and amendments to the “Law on Mass Media”, Criminal Code, “Administrative Investigation”, Civil Procedural Code and “Law on Search Operation.” The Draft Law Proposal will be submitted to parliament in the end of March.
