Source confidentiality is the journalistic practice of withholding the identity of a source who has provided information on the condition of anonymity. It is considered a cornerstone of investigative reporting because many whistleblowers, government insiders, and corporate informants would not speak to the press if their names could be disclosed.
The principle is recognized in varying degrees by law:
- In the United States, there is no federal shield law, but most states have statutory or common-law "reporter's privilege." The leading Supreme Court case, Branzburg v. Hayes (1972), held that the First Amendment does not give journalists an absolute right to refuse to testify before a grand jury, though Justice Powell's concurrence has been read by lower courts to allow a qualified privilege.
- In Europe, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Goodwin v. United Kingdom (1996) that compelling a journalist to reveal a source violates Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, absent an overriding public interest.
- Under the Council of Europe Recommendation No. R (2000) 7, member states are urged to recognize the right of journalists not to disclose sources.
Confidentiality is typically negotiated through attribution conventions such as on background, deep background, and off the record. Breaches can carry serious consequences: in 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail for refusing to identify her source in the Valerie Plame affair, while in 2014 the U.S. Department of Justice revised its guidelines to limit subpoenas against reporters following criticism of its surveillance of Associated Press phone records.
For Model UN delegates and IR researchers, source confidentiality matters because it shapes what information enters the public record on diplomatic cables, sanctions enforcement, and conflict reporting. Leaked materials handled by outlets such as The Guardian, Der Spiegel, or the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) — including the Panama Papers (2016) and Pandora Papers (2021) — depended on confidentiality commitments to obtain documents from anonymous insiders.
Example
In 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for 85 days for refusing to identify her confidential source in the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation.