The UK High Court has ruled that the right of journalists to protect their sources can be outweighed by the right to privacy.
The issue arose in a case involving Cliff Richard and sexual offence charges, which were later dropped. In August 2014, Cliff Richard’s property was raided by the South Yorkshire Police seeking material in connection with an investigation of child abuse. A journalist working for the BBC was informed of the raid in advance, resulting in the BBC being in place to cover events as they unfolded. The journalist had used confidential information to persuade South Yorkshire Police to tell him when the search was going to occur.
Sir Cliff brought an action against both the BBC and the police claiming violation of his right to privacy under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and his rights under the Data Protection Act 1998. Sir Cliff made a Part 18 request as to the journalist’s knowledge of his source, which the BBC wanted to decline to reveal on the basis that it risked exposing a journalistic source. Crucially, a request was made not for the name of the source, but for information about the source and whether the source was connected to the police operation, Operation Yewtree.
Mr Justice Mann acknowledged that a right to not reveal journalistic sources existed under Article 10 of the ECHR, but that it was a negative right that was not absolute and must be balanced with Sir Cliff’s right to privacy. While he recognised that importance of upholding press freedom and the rights of journalists, he found the chilling effect of infringing on these rights in this case was less severe as the name of the source was not being revealed and there had already been an investigation into whether someone from Operation Yewtree leaked the information. The Judge ruled that on balance “the rights and interests of Sir Cliff … [were] much more weighty” and he ordered that the BBC must provide proper answers to the information request.
Click here to read the decision.