Introduction: Integrity Systems and Democratic Accountability

The nine Attorney-Generals of a modern, industrialized, federal democracy met to consider a specic legal reform intended to boost public integrity. The national Attorney-General proposed there should be uniform law reform across the country to protect journalists from being prosecuted for contempt of court if they refused to name a condential source while giving evidence in a criminal trial. It was not in the public interest, the nation’s senior justice minister argued, for journalists to face criminal penalties for honouring their professional ethics, in a situation where a free and independent media could not be effective unless it could promise condentiality. Hence, journalists should be able to claim a defence in appropriate cases.