Media companies win battle over sources

An important ruling in the European courts today concerning the protection of journalist's sources.

Back in 2001,the UK courts ruled that five media companies should hand over leaked documents outlining a possible bid by Interbrew, a Belgian brewing company, for South African Breweries.

The European court has now overturned that judgement saying that it violated the companies rights to freedom of expression

The five,the Independent, The Guardian, The Times,FT and Reuters,heard that that Interbrew’s interests in eliminating damage through dissemination of the information were “insufficient to outweigh the public interest in the protection of journalists’ sources”.