(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is alarmed that journalists Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus of the Canberra-based daily “Herald Sun” have been summoned to appear as witnesses before a Melbourne court on 23 August 2005, where they will be asked under threat of legal penalty if the defendant is one of their sources. In a 20 February […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is alarmed that journalists Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus of the Canberra-based daily “Herald Sun” have been summoned to appear as witnesses before a Melbourne court on 23 August 2005, where they will be asked under threat of legal penalty if the defendant is one of their sources.
In a 20 February article, the two journalists disclosed a government plan not to pay war veterans 500 million dollars (approx. US$375 million) they had been promised in supplementary benefits. After the article appeared, both men were summoned as witnesses to the trial of government official Desmond Patrick Kelly, who is charged with leaking the information.
“Reporters Without Borders believes that this judicial step is damaging to the principle of the protection of sources. Forcing journalists to reveal this kind of information would constitute an extremely dangerous precedent for press freedom in the country,” the organisation said. “The Australian justice system has to understand that, without the protection of sources guaranteed to journalists before the courts, nobody in possession of sensitive information would any longer dare to make it available.”
The two journalists told RSF that they had no intention of giving in to the court’s demand. McManus, who has already appeared at a preliminary hearing, refused to reply when the judge asked him if he knew Kelly.
Harvey and McManus both face prison.
