Thorny branches of the 'tolerated weed' : some remarks on the protection of journalists' sources in South Africa (original) (raw)

The last decade has seen a worldwide upsurge in events that highlight a pivotal constituent of media freedom - the protection of journalists' sources. A recent groundbreaking report on the issue indicates that countries as wide-ranging as Luxembourg, New Zealand and El Salvador have recently adopted legislation to deal with the matter. Draft legislation is currently under consideration in the United States, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands. Courts in several jurisdictions have also had occasion to consider the matter, including the United States, Canada, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The European Court of Human Rights has dealt with the same matter on a number of occasions since it handed down its landmark judgment in Goodwin v United Kingdom, most notably in the recent cases of Tillack v Belgium, Voskuil v Netherlands and Sanoma Uitgevers v Netherlands. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has also considered the issue in the, admittedly...