[Puffer Fish]

Do you think media companies should be able to be sued for defamation when they use anonymous sources?
There might be some good reasons to keep the source anonymous, a need to protect individuals from reprisal.
But at the same time, do we want media companies to just be able to damage anyone's reputation and claim the information came from a person whom they cannot reveal?

I think it is very important to protect journalism.

[Godstud]

I believe, in most countries, there are laws to protect Whistleblowers. I am not sure this extends to slander, or defamation, however. There has to be limits otherwise any journalist can simply say anything and claim it was "an anonymous source". Modern journalism is poor enough, already.

[Puffer Fish]

I believe, in most countries, there are laws to protect Whistleblowers. I am not sure this extends to slander, or defamation, however.

I think one issue is what happens when government officials cannot be trusted to protect the whistleblowers? That is an issue that can arise in a variety of situations.

Accusations of slander and defamation could just be used as an excuse to try to force the revealing of the source.

And I'm not sure that specific laws even exist to protect the whistleblower in the case of a slander lawsuit. The usual situation is that the plaintiff (the accuser) has the right to see the evidence that the defense presents in court.

Perhaps slander should be one type of case where secret witnesses are allowed on the side of the defense?

There has got to be a way for a newspaper to be able to publicly reveal accusations from a witness without being legally subject to be required to reveal who that witness is.
Of course it could also be argued that the value of a whistleblower is limited when that whistleblower is anonymous, since how can the public be expected to rely on the claims of some person whose name is not even known? You would then have to trust that the reporters were not just making up the source.

This has important implications for freedom of the press, privacy, protecting sensitive information and whistleblowers.