What is alleged by journalists and by judges when a reporter refuses to reveal a source in court? Is professional secrecy a reporters' privilege? Or does it exist to guarantee the right of the public to information that, otherwise, would never get to be known?

The Justice's arguments in these cases was clarified by judge Fátima Mata-Mouros during a meeting held in Lisbon on the 30 November 2002. Her words were remembered in this chapter to help us understand how the confidentiality of sources undermines juridical purposes.

The law bill that the Left Block presented in October 2002 in order to equalize the professional secrecy of journalists to that of priests, the debate around the statutes of the ERC (the regulator authority for the Portuguese media) and the revision of the Journalist's Statute are other of the themes focused on this chapter.

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