CBC reporter won’t have to reveal sources to newspaper

The Yukon Supreme Court will not force a CBC News reporter to reveal her sources, CBC reports.

The Yukon News had requested
that reporter Nancy Thomson turn over the identities of confidential
sources for an investigative piece radio series aired in 2004, in order
to defend itself against a libel suit. The paper had written an
editorial defending Thomson’s journalism, and a small-town doctor named
in the story (and the CBC series) sued the paper for defamation.

“We
were able to assist, I think, in identifying ways in which the
appropriate facts could be put before the court without having to
imperil Nancy Thomson or her sources,” CBC’s media lawyer Fred Kozak
told the broadcaster.