Irish Supreme Court rules in favor of source protection

Ireland’s Supreme Court has ruled that the Irish Times was justified in protecting its confidential source for documents revealing a government corruption investigation.

According to The Associated Press, the Irish High Court in 2007 ordered the Times to identify its source for the documents, which came from a tribunal conducting a corruption inquiry. The Times editor and a reporter refused, saying the documents  had been destroyed.

But the Supreme Court’s decision Friday said the real issue was not that the documents had been destroyed, but that the public interest was served by the journalists’ work whereas no real benefit could come from revealing the source, the AP said.