(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Justice Minister Dominique Perben, RSF expressed serious concern over the introduction of a new bill regarding internal security. The bill includes provisions allowing for new means of investigation, notably in the areas governing police search and seizure. “This bill represents a new threat to the confidentiality of journalists’ sources,” […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Justice Minister Dominique Perben, RSF expressed serious concern over the introduction of a new bill regarding internal security. The bill includes provisions allowing for new means of investigation, notably in the areas governing police search and seizure.
“This bill represents a new threat to the confidentiality of journalists’ sources,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “Even though police searches of media outlets’ offices remain subject to special regulations, the measures pose a new threat to the confidentiality of journalists’ sources, to the degree that under the proposed law, a journalist who is found ‘likely’ to be in possession of information that is deemed relevant to an investigation will find himself in the justice system’s sights. In addition, journalists who do not respond to information requests from state prosecutors or judges could be fined. We repeat: journalists should not be turned into accessories of the courts,” Ménard emphasised.
On 9 April 2003, Perben introduced a bill before the Council of Ministers with the stated purpose of “adapting the law to the development of crime.” Articles 28 and 49 of the bill seek to give examining judges, state prosecutors and Criminal Investigation Department officers the right “to require all persons, institutions, private or public organisations and government offices that are likely to be in possession of documents or information of significance to an investigation (…) to hand over these documents or pass on the information, without being constrained by an obligation to respect the notion of ‘professional secrecy'”. Under the bill, anyone who refuses to respond to such a formal request will be fined 3,750 euros (approx. US$4,100).
Current penal code clauses state that police searches of media outlets’ offices are subject to judicial approval. However, as RSF has long criticised, searches of journalists’ homes by Criminal Investigation Department officers do not benefit from any such protection. The Perben Bill represents a further step back in this regard, and also poses further threats to investigative journalism and independent journalists.
At present, journalists have no legal obligation to respect the notion of “professional secrecy”, unlike lawyers or physicians. However, when heard as witnesses in court, journalists do have the right to preserve the confidentiality of their sources (Article 109, paragraph 2 of the penal code).
The Perben Bill represents another setback for journalists’ right not to reveal their sources. It has been introduced despite the fact that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has recognised the protection of sources as one of the “cornerstones of press freedom.” The ECHR has said, “The absence of such protection may deter journalistic sources from helping the press inform the public about issues that are of general interest. As a consequence, the press may find it more difficult to play its indispensable role as a democracy ‘watchdog’.”
