96. Journalists.

A journalist may incur obligations of confidence, similar to those binding members of other professions1, in particular to his sources. The European Court of Human Rights has emphasised that protection of journalistic sources is one of the basic conditions for press freedom2. Having regard to the importance of the protection of journalistic sources for press freedom in a democratic society and the potentially chilling effect that an order for disclosure of a source has on the exercise of that freedom, such a measure cannot be compatible