Conference at Yale Law School asks: How can reporters protect their sources?

Journalists and information technology specialists will meet at Yale Law School on Thursday, Nov. 29, to discuss the challenges facing journalists trying to safeguard source confidentiality in the digital age.

Free and open to the public, the conference takes place in Rm. 127 of Sterling Law Buildings, 127 Wall St., from 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.

The surveillance capabilities of digital technology threaten the journalistic mandate to keep the identity of sources secret, say the organizers, and this conference explores what measures are available to protect it, which ones are being used, and which ones are actually effective.

Titled  “Protecting Journalism: Anonymous and Secure Communications for Reporters and Sources,” the conference consists 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.  

The program is sponsored by the Information Society Project (ISP) and the Knight Law and Media Program (LAMP). Bryan Choi, the Thomson Reuters Fellow and LAMP director, is co-organizing the conference with ISP visiting fellow Nabiha Syed ’10. For more information, contact them at bryan.choi@yale.edu or nabiha.syed@gmail.com.   

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