In the Digital Info Age, How Can Reporters Protect Their Sources? Conference Nov. 29

Reporters often find it necessary to protect the identities of their sources. Before the age of digital technology, that secrecy was easier to achieve, but now, because communications between reporters and sources are subject to greater surveillance, confidentiality is threatened.

If source confidentiality remains crucial to journalism, what measures are available to protect it, which ones are being used, and which ones are actually effective?

These are some of the questions to be discussed at the “Protecting Journalism: Anonymous and Secure Communications for Reporters and Sources” conference being held Thursday, Nov. 29, at Yale Law School. Sponsored by the Information Society Project and the Knight Law and Media Program, the conference will bring together journalists and technologists to discuss the security needs of journalism; current practices among reporters; the merits and pitfalls of the available technology; and what more can—or should—be done to protect communications of this nature.

The conference will be held in Room 127 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. It is free and open to the public. It will consist of three panel discussions: “The Gap Between Security Risks and Security Practices,” “The Faith in Anonymous and Secure Communications,” and “The Tradeoff Between Security and Usability.”

A complete list of panelists, the schedule, and registration information are available on the conference website.

Bryan Choi, Thomson Reuters Fellow and LAMP director, is co-organizing the conference with ISP Visiting Fellow Nabiha Syed ’10. For more information, please contact them at bryan.choi@yale.edu or nabiha.syed@gmail.com.