Press freedom organisations have hailed the Tokyo High Court's decision overturning the city federal court's action against a journalist on national TV and radio NHK for refusing to reveal his sources. The high court ruling on March 17, 2006 was similar to one taken by the Niigata federal court in October 2005, which upheld his right not to reveal the sources which allowed him to report on a case of tax fraud by an agro-food business.
However, Tokyo's federal court is continuing its action against a journalist with Yomiuri Shimbun for refusing to reveal sources in the same case.
"The protection of one's sources is the basis of investigative journalism," Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. "We, therefore, welcome the high court's decision to uphold this principle and thereby allow Japanese investigative journalism to continue. We hope for the same outcome in the case of the Yomiuri Shimbun journalist", it said.
"Journalists must be able to ensure the confidentiality of their sources," said International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) President Christopher Warren. "The importance of this decision can not be underestimated as it recognises and protects journalists' right to protect their sources," said Warren.
In October 1997, a journalist with NHK, as well as one with Yomiuri Shimbun, revealed that the Japanese branch of a US agro-food business and its Japanese affiliate had hidden income of 8 billion yen (nearly 55 million euros) from tax authorities.
In response to the article, the implicated US company claimed its reputation had been tarnished by the US Government leaking the wrong information to the Japanese tax authority and Yomiuri and filed a suit for compensation against the US government to the Arizona Federal District Court. The Arizona court asked the Tokyo District Court to investigate the source. The reporter refused to reveal the identity of the source.
The Tokyo District Court ruled that journalists had no right to protect the confidentiality of their sources when their source was a public official. The Yomiuri then appealed to the Tokyo High Court. The subsequent overturning of the decision by the Tokyo High Court followed an earlier decision by the high court to confirm the right of a Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) reporter who was found by a lower court not obligated to disclose a news source.
The IFJ Tokyo office expressed regret at the earlier Tokyo District Court decision, stating that such a decision restricted press freedom and hindered the public's right to know. "Nobody would cooperate with journalists and provide hidden information when reporters are obliged to reveal their sources," said the IFJ Tokyo Office. "These two decisions by the Tokyo High Court clearly support the principle and practice of confidentiality of sources in journalism," said Warren.
The court justified its order, RSF said, which ran contrary to the law on protection of sources handed down by the Supreme Court in 1978, arguing that information could have come from an official who had violated professional confidentiality.
The federal court judge had ruled earlier: "Allowing a journalist to refuse to reveal his sources would be tantamount to being indirectly involved in protecting a criminal act. This is absolutely unacceptable (...) and does not deserve legal protection. Furthermore, journalists should not be able to protect the confidentiality of their sources when they implicate a public official."
