4.3 Confidentiality of Sources of Information and Responsibility of

Journalist The principle: the journalist's professional duty to protect the identity of confidential sources — the whistle-blower, the insider, the leak. The logic: without source protection, the flow of information dries; the watchdog goes blind; the public's right to know starves. The Nepali position (the honest map): No express statutory shield law — no Nepali statute expressly grants the journalist-source privilege (no equivalent of the "shield laws" of some jurisdictions); The constitutional reading: Article 19's press freedom interpreted to include the newsroom's protection — the court's orders compelling source disclosure would need the strongest justification (the proportionality discipline of Unit 2.5); The professional duty: the Code of Journalistic Conduct — the confidence's keeping as professional ethics; the promise of confidentiality morally binding on the journalist (broken only by the gravest cause); The journalist's responsibility: the journalist who publishes the source's information answers for the publication — defamation (Unit 9), contempt (Unit 7), the classified- information offences (Unit 6): the source's confidentiality protects the source's name, NOT the journalist from the published content's liability. The reporter cannot hide behind the unnamed source: "my source said so" is no defence to a false defamatory allegation. The tension cases (the exam's illustration): the court demanding the source's name (the contempt risk of refusal — the professional's martyrdom question); the source who lied —…