It isn't only British and American journalists who are facing police action to discover their sources. Last week, police in Argentina raided a radio station in order to search for information on journalists' computers.
The officers obtained a court order granting them the right to enter the headquarters of La Brújula 24, a radio station and news website, in the city of Bahía Blanca in Buenos Aires province.
They confiscated computers and thumb drives with recordings of phone calls involving a businessman who had been jailed on charges of money laundering and ties to drug trafficking.
One of La Brújula's directors, Germán Sasso, told reporters that the outlet had aired and published parts of the businessman's conversations, which the government obtained via wiretaps. The recordings are said to implicate police and government officials in criminal activity.
He said the outlet had stored copies of the recordings in other locations, and he condemned the raid, saying it violated constitutional protections for journalists.
It later emerged that the order to carry out the raid on La Brújula 24 came from the attorney general's office and was intended to investigate the source of the leaked recordings.
Carlos Lauría, a programme coordinator with the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said the seizure of journalistic material "to force the revelation of confidential sources violates basic principles of press freedom protected by Argentine law."
He added: "We call on the Argentine authorities to return all the confiscated material and allow La Brújula 24 to continue reporting on a case of public interest without further obstruction or harassment."
Source: CPJ
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