How can a balance be struck between protecting investigative journalism & safeguarding the public, asks Iain Goldrein QC
There is an obvious tension between protecting the integrity of genuine investigative journalism and safeguarding the public against criminality. Criminal offences most likely to be committed in cases affecting the media are set out in the appendix of the DPP’s Interim Guidelines. What is to happen when a journalist is arrested under suspicion of committing any such crimes? Is the journalist to be charged? Can the journalist fend off being charged, by arguing “public interest”? If yes—how, and when?
In criminal law, there is no overriding “public interest” defence. For the journalist looking for the enactment of an overriding defence of “public interest”, the advice has to be: don’t hold your breath. The House of Lords Select Committee on the future of investigative journalism (report, 16 February 2012) does not recommend there be enacted such a defence. The difficulty challenging a journalist goes further: there is no definition in law of what constitutes the “public
