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The other day I was thinking that in "the times we live in"™ it would be nice to have a sort of notary for anonymous sources. The source is known between the jo

The other day I was thinking that in "the times we live in"™ it would be nice to have a sort of notary for anonymous sources. The source is known between the journalist and the notary. The notary has to be assigned to the journalist from another third party randomly (probably a state institution through a process like `get_notary(unique_article_id, unique_journalist_id) -> unique_notary_id`). The journalist communicates quotes and contact information for the quotes to the notary they've been assigned to. Then, in case of doubt, it's possible for anybody to request the notary validates the sources of the story. Freelance journalist could also go through the process to be able to guaranty to the Editor they're submitting to that their story is not bullshit, without having to reveal their sources or the editor to have to do the checks themselves.

alex_duf 3y ago
Now you have N more points of failures, possibly concentrating far more power than attacking journalists directly. There's a reason journalists tend to be all hush hush around giving who their sources are, sources are often risking their lives, and are often putting regimes in place / powerful people under scrutiny. The very same people that can decide whether you should live or not. So in principle: yes, in practice: please no!
- lolinder 3y ago
  There are lots of ways around this. The most obvious is to forgo the process if the story is one of the few that would draw the ire of a national government or otherwise place lives at risk. There are lots of cases where anonymous sources are used in less extreme circumstances, and to protect those you could build a rigorous system of vetting notaries, equivalent to a security clearance. Under OP's proposed model we wouldn't need a lot of these notaries, since as I understand it they'd only be actually validating sources if doubts are raised, so the requirements could be quite strict.
- maaaaattttt 3y ago
  I agree, I was thinking about it while writing it. My thinking was that it should somebody sworn in to try not break the chain of trust. But adding somebody new in a chain will always weaken it (in this context). As the sibling comment mentions, it wouldn't have to be mandatory as well. It's just that in general I find the "anonymous sources" a bit too easy to use. It's very easy to have your article say whatever you want by using "anonymous sources".

alex_duf 3y ago

Now you have N more points of failures, possibly concentrating far more power than attacking journalists directly. There's a reason journalists tend to be all hush hush around giving who their sources are, sources are often risking their lives, and are often putting regimes in place / powerful people under scrutiny. The very same people that can decide whether you should live or not. So in principle: yes, in practice: please no!

lolinder 3y ago
There are lots of ways around this. The most obvious is to forgo the process if the story is one of the few that would draw the ire of a national government or otherwise place lives at risk. There are lots of cases where anonymous sources are used in less extreme circumstances, and to protect those you could build a rigorous system of vetting notaries, equivalent to a security clearance. Under OP's proposed model we wouldn't need a lot of these notaries, since as I understand it they'd only be actually validating sources if doubts are raised, so the requirements could be quite strict.
maaaaattttt 3y ago
I agree, I was thinking about it while writing it. My thinking was that it should somebody sworn in to try not break the chain of trust. But adding somebody new in a chain will always weaken it (in this context). As the sibling comment mentions, it wouldn't have to be mandatory as well. It's just that in general I find the "anonymous sources" a bit too easy to use. It's very easy to have your article say whatever you want by using "anonymous sources".