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Evidence Act 2006

Admissibility rules, privilege, and confidentiality - Privilege and confidentiality - Confidentiality

68: Protection of journalists’ sources

You could also call this:

"Journalists can keep secret who tells them information to help them do their job"

Illustration for Evidence Act 2006

If you are a journalist and you promise someone that you will not tell anyone who they are, you do not have to answer questions or show documents that would reveal who they are in a court case. You are protected so you can keep the person's identity secret. This helps you do your job and get information from people who might not talk to you if they thought you would tell others who they are.

If someone thinks it is really important for the court to know who the person is, a High Court Judge can decide whether you have to answer questions or show documents. The Judge will think about whether it is more important for the person's identity to be kept secret or for the information to be shared with the court. The Judge will also think about whether sharing the information would hurt the person or someone else.

The Judge can make rules about what you have to do if they decide you have to answer questions or show documents. This law does not change the power of the Parliament. It is meant to help you as a journalist keep people's identities secret when they give you information for a news story.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM393681.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Courts and legal help
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67: Powers of Judge to disallow privilege, or

"A Judge can stop someone using a secret conversation as an excuse if they think it's unfair."

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69: Overriding discretion as to confidential information, or

"The Judge can keep some information secret in a court case if sharing it might cause harm."

Part 2Admissibility rules, privilege, and confidentiality
Privilege and confidentiality: Confidentiality

68Protection of journalists’ sources

  1. If a journalist has promised an informant not to disclose the informant’s identity, neither the journalist nor his or her employer is compellable in a civil or criminal proceeding to answer any question or produce any document that would disclose the identity of the informant or enable that identity to be discovered.

  2. A Judge of the High Court may order that subsection (1) is not to apply if satisfied by a party to a civil or criminal proceeding that, having regard to the issues to be determined in that proceeding, the public interest in the disclosure of evidence of the identity of the informant outweighs—

  3. any likely adverse effect of the disclosure on the informant or any other person; and
    1. the public interest in the communication of facts and opinion to the public by the news media and, accordingly also, in the ability of the news media to access sources of facts.

      1. The Judge may make the order subject to any terms and conditions that the Judge thinks appropriate.

      2. This section does not affect the power or authority of the House of Representatives.

      3. In this section,—

        informant means a person who gives information to a journalist in the normal course of the journalist’s work in the expectation that the information may be published in a news medium

          journalist means a person who in the normal course of that person’s work may be given information by an informant in the expectation that the information may be published in a news medium

            news medium means a medium for the dissemination to the public or a section of the public of news and observations on news

              public interest in the disclosure of evidence includes, in a criminal proceeding, the defendant’s right to present an effective defence.