In the June/July 2007 edition of the American Journalism Review (AJR) [1], senior contributing writer Lori Robertson examines what "confidentiality" means in regards to the journalist/source relationship in this new era where federal judges have shown a willingness to disregard source confidentiality agreements.

Robertson writes:

In late March, Jim Taricani met for the first time with an anonymous source, who showed the investigative reporter some documents. The papers were critical to a story he was covering. The two discussed the documents for about an hour, and then Taricani, who works for Providence, Rhode Island's WJAR-TV, asked what level of protection the source was seeking. "'I want total confidentiality,'" the reporter recalls his source saying.

Taricani then explained the policy he had been told to present in such situations by Media General, WJAR's owner. "I actually had to tell him that I would protect his confidentiality, if we were investigated, up until the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals," he says. "If we lose at the 1st Circuit..I would need him to sign an affidavit saying he was the one" who provided the documents.

The reporter is no novice when it comes to protecting anonymous sources. In late 2004, Taricani was handed a six-month home-confinement sentence for refusing to reveal the name of a confidential source who gave him a videotape from an FBI investigation into corruption among Providence officials. Taricani's latest source was quite familiar with his case and said he'd be glad to sign the document. "Lucky for me," says the reporter, "he agreed."

Such a detailed agreement is one way to cope with a precarious legal landscape studded with cases in which a reporter's privilege to keep confidential sources a secret has been rejected in court. The parade of high-profile journalistic martyrs, from Vanessa Leggett to Judy Miller to the BALCO Boys, has turned reporters into law school candidates, as well-versed in the legal implications of confidentiality as the ethical ones. And the emergence of the get-out-of-jail waiver has brought the seemingly sacrosanct notion of vigorously protecting anonymity into question. Is confidentiality a philosophical, idealistic notion of forever guarding a source's identity until the person's death, à la Bob Woodward's promise to Deep Throat? Or is it simply a practical matter to be carefully negotiated to keep reporters out of jail and their publicly traded companies out of contempt of court?

In this "new world" or "current climate," as many journalists and media lawyers call today's risky environment, anonymity is a balance of both. Individual journalists and media companies are examining editorial policies and questioning just how detailed a conversation reporters should have with sources and how far they reasonably can--or should--protect anonymity. There are the purists, sure, who shun the concept of source affidavits--and Taricani's agreement is much more specific than what many news organizations suggest. But in the industry there is plenty of talk of "Mirandizing" sources and a renewed discussion of what exactly these promises mean...

Click here to read Robertson's article in its entirety on the AJR website. [2]