Journalistic privilege is a privilege provided by the constitutional or statutory law protecting a reporter from being compelled to testify about confidential information or sources. In Canada, the Journalistic Sources Protection Act amended the Canada Evidence Act to protect the confidentiality of journalistic sources. Journalistic privilege allows journalists to not disclose information or a document that identifies or is likely to identify a source unless the information or document cannot be obtained by any other reasonable means and the public interest in the administration of justice outweighs the public interest in preserving the confidentiality of that source.
Journalistic privilege also refers to a journalist’s and/or publisher’s protection against defamation lawsuits in cases of fair comment. To protect journalistic privilege, anti-SLAPP legislation has also been implemented in multiple jurisdictions, including Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. SLAPPs – strategic lawsuits against public participation – is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition. In the typical SLAPP, the plaintiff’s goal is to force the defendant to abandon their criticism through intimidation, mounting legal costs or exhaustion.
For decades, rich and famous people who felt they’d been wronged by the media tried to have their libel cases heard in Canada because our courts were so plaintiff-friendly. Journalists, whether they wrote about rock stars or their local town council, lived with libel chill: being hit with long, expensive lawsuits that were usually dropped … Read more