Confidential Sources

True anonymous sources can be people who call in tips to an organization, leave
comments, or contact an organization through social media or other outlets.
Usually sources wish to remain anonymous when speaking negatively about a subject,
organization, etc. that they may represent.

These are sources who provide journalists with information to journalists or other
writers with the agreement that their identities will not be revealing when reporting
the details that they have provided.

Journalists often call these news sources “anonymous sources.”

Most journalist are hesitant to use information from anonymous sources because it can
weaken an organization’s credibility.

While information from confidential sources can be valuable, nothing should ever be
published from a confidential source without first being verified as true and reliable.

An ex of a confidential sources gone wrong is after the Boston bombing in 2013 the
journalist glenn beck published that a Saudi Arabian student, Abdulrahman Alharbi,
was behind the bombings after getting his information from 2 confidential source who
were employed by U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Abdulrahman Alharbi sued
Beck, his firms The Blaze and Mercury Radio Arts, as well as distributor Premiere
Networks for defamation in federal court in Boston over his assertions that Alharbi—
who was injured in the attack—served as "the money man" for the operation.

Generally, any person who is asked or ordered to testify at a legal proceeding must comply. If the person doesn’t, he or she’s subject to a contempt finding, which means a judge could put the person in jail, or fine her, or both to extract compliance. However, there are exceptions called privileges.

Many confidential sources feel comfortable supplying information to reporters because of reporter’s privilege.

The idea behind reporter’s privilege is that journalist have a limited First Amendment right not to reveal information or confidential news sources in court.

Roughly 30 states have passed statutes, called shield laws, which allow journalists to refuse to disclose or testify about disclosed information, including the identity of sources. The statues significantly vary from state to state in the scope of their protections.

The first state shield law was enacted in Maryland on April 2, 1896, in response to the imprisonment of a Baltimore Sun reporter for refusing to reveal a confidential source to a grand jury.

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