Endangering sources?

 Published Date: August 23, 2009

When Congress reconvenes next month, the SPJ will continue its fight to enact a national shield law that will allow journalists to protect our sources.

That is all well and good in the United States. Sources need to be protected under law if we are to dig deeply into the who, what, when, where and how.

But what about sources overseas?

There was an interesting piece in Friday’s New York Times: In South Korea, Freed U.S. Journalists Come Under Harsh Criticism

SEOUL, South Korea — Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two American journalists released after nearly five months in North Korean custody, have been widely portrayed at home as victims of unduly harsh punishment by a repressive government for simply doing their job.

But here in South Korea, human rights advocates, bloggers and Christian pastors are accusing them of needlessly endangering the very people they tried to cover: North Korean refugees and the activists who help them.

And North Korean refugees are not the only ones threatened.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China has a whole page on protecting sources and examples of what could happen if those sources are not protected. While this page is specific to issues in China, the issues it raises and the guidelines it suggests are true for any repressive government in the world.

A discussion of this kind fits in nicely with the SPJ Code of Ethics:

Journalists should:

  • Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance.

And in the cases under discussion here, that "harm and discomfort" could mean torture and death.

Protecting Your Sources

It is important to remember that on sensitive stories, your Chinese contacts are usually more at risk than you. It is therefore your duty to take their safety into consideration.

WHAT RISKS DO SOURCES FACE?

Your approach could put interviewees at risk of detention or physical violence, especially if you raise issues the government considers taboo.

Examples:

  • A campaigner from Sichuan was paralyzed from the waist down in 2006 when thugs he says were linked to local officials beat him up after he spoke to German journalists.
  • In 2007 farmer Yu Changwu from Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China was sentenced to two years of re-education through labor for speaking to foreign journalists about his campaign to recover and privatize farmland seized by the government. The charge was the government’s catchall “endangering state security.”
  • Uighurs and Tibetans in particular have been detained — and in the case of one group sentenced to death — after expressing separatist sentiments.

Sources can be fearful, sometimes just because of living in a repressive society but sometimes with reason. Make sure people you speak to are fully informed about what you are doing. If they are not in a position to understand the risks they run, use your judgment to get the story out in a way that will not jeopardize anyone – weigh up editors’ demands for full names etc. with potential repercussions for the people you are quoting.

This is particularly the case with people from rural areas, with limited education, or in sensitive regions like Tibet where foreign media are rare and foreign reporters are even more heavily managed than in the rest of China.

IF A SOURCE FACES HARASSMENT

If you are very concerned that a source may be harassed after you leave but may not be able to tell you, you can arrange for them or a relative to e-mail or text you a pre-arranged message about an unrelated topic – their cows/children etc.– as a sign.

If a source is abused or threatened, contact your embassy, China’s Foreign Ministry, and the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China.

Public campaigns could include letters to China’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Public Security, as well as local mayors, the head of the local “First Bureau” and political security bureau.

Other potential contacts in case a source has been harassed, injured or detained:

For more details on steps to take to protect your sources and yourself, go to the Reporting and Traveling Safely section.