Supreme Court rules Vice Media reporter must share ISIS notes with police


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A Vice Media reporter will have to hand over records of his conversations with an alleged ISIS member to police following a Supreme Court of Canada decision.


In the unanimous decision released Friday, the top court upheld a lower court’s ruling regarding the work of reporter Ben Makuch.


The dispute was largely seen as a case that pitted journalists’ interests in protecting their sources against those of the state to investigate.


The case dates back to 2014, when Makuch wrote three stories about Farah Mohamed Shirdon, a former Calgary resident, and his ties to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.


Intrigued by the idea of a young man leaving a Canadian city to fight for a terrorist group, Makuch embedded himself in Shirdon’s online world and eventually convinced him to explain some of ISIS’s online recruiting and radicalizing strategies.


In 2015, the RCMP filed an information to obtain order (ITO) compelling Vice and Makuch to produce all of his communications with Shirdon — who has since been killed, according to reports — including his Kik Messenger chats, paper printouts, screen captures and any other computer records.


Kik does not store messages on servers, meaning police could not go to a service provider for copies of the conversation.


Makuch brought an application forward to quash the RCMP’s production order, but it was dismissed — a decision upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal.


In their Friday decision, the Supreme Court justices said while it was important for media to be able to gather news without government interference, in this case, society’s interest in investigating and prosecuting crimes outweighed that right.


A previous court decision set out a framework for deciding when police should be able to access media materials, but the Supreme Court justices said Friday that framework should be tweaked.


Currently, police can go before a court to make the case for a production order “ex parte,” or without the journalist or media outlet present. In their reasons for Friday’s decision, the justices said journalists should be given the chance to argue their side unless it is an emergency.


“The authorizing judge may find it desirable to require that notice be given to the media,” notes the decision.



Article source: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/kenya-rerun-elections-171027052625931.html


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