The purpose of this thesis is to give a thorough and detailed presentation of the Norwegian laws concerning the journalistic privilege to protect sources, displaying de lege lata and de lege ferenda aspects of these laws.
The thesis is based on the principle that journalists have the legal right to protect its sources. This principle can be dated back to the introduction of freedom of speech and is anchored to this fundamental human right and is therefore a near absolute and unshakeable right that is given to journalists and their sources.
In Norwegian law this right is fortified in The Dispute Act § 22-11 and The Criminal Procedure Act § 125. This thesis with examine the implications of these provisions and analyze their wording and the interpretations of these.
Since the protection of sources is related to freedom of speech and human rights a valuable source of law in this thesis will be the European Convention on Human Rights as well as the Norwegian Human Rights Act. These, together with the Norwegian provisions will form the basis of legal sources in this thesis, but the thesis will also provide comparisons to the Danish Code of Judicial Procedure and its provisions regarding source protection to provide the reader with a somewhat relatable context to the Norwegian provisions. Scandinavian law tends to be quite similar, but this thesis will display the differences as well as the similarities.
The most notable difference between these provisions is that the Danish is far more specific with regard to wording, whereas the Norwegian leaves it to the courts to interpret the law in a greater sense.
This thesis also relies heavily on the case law originating from the European Court of Human Rights and most notably the renowned 1996 case of Goodwin vs. UK which answered several questions of principle and the case has since proceeded on to the become the leading precedent regarding source protection in light of ECHR Article 10.
Source protection has evolved along with society and technology since it was inducted in Norwegian law in 1951 and has since faced several obstacles along the way. This thesis will display these obstacles and furthermore how Norwegian legislators plan to overcome these obstacles, with focus on the proposed new Criminal Procedure Act.