The difficult balancing of interests between the protection of journalists and their sources and law enforcement.
The terrorist emergency is pushing different countries to enact laws to increase the investigative powers of law enforcement agencies and therefore be more effective in addressing this threat. These increased powers of interfering into the private life of the people, however, are creating a debate concerning the lawfulness of these regulations in the light of respecting fundamental rights and defending democratic principles. One of the most affected categories are journalists, who suffer from the erosion of fundamental safeguards that are the basis of freedom of expression. For this reason, both lawmakers and the courts involved in deciding the admissibility or otherwise of these measures must be able to achieve a difficult balance between rights of the same rank.
