"Journalists aren't government investigators": CAJ

I have written recently about the story behind our tax haven story and how many wealthy Canadians have deposited their money in offshore "tax havens". I have also explained why we decided not to name all the Canadians who held those accounts, and why we oppose Revenue Minister Gail Shea's call for the CBC and other media organizations to hand over the list of names.

I was heartened to see the statement, "Journalists aren't government investigators" released this week by the Canadian Association of Journalists. The CAJ is one of this country's premier organizations with a special interest in investigative journalism. "Governments invariably keep asking journalists to hand over information they should have been able to find if they had been doing their jobs properly," CAJ president Hugo Rodrigues said. "Journalists are not police officers and they're not Canada Revenue Agency fraud investigators - Canada already employs people for these roles."

The CAJ statement continues, "The requests are concerning and a threat to journalists' ability to uphold source confidentiality -- an important trust between journalists and the people they speak to when working on investigative pieces like this one."

We will continue to update you about developments in this story.