Az információforrás védelme a büntetőeljárásban

This thesis is aimed at elaborating on the protection of sources (sometimes also referred to as the confidentiality of sources or in the U.S. as the reporter's privilege) mainly from a procedural/dogmatic approach and secondly from a basic law approach. The methods I applied included in particular the grammatical, logical, taxonomical and teleological interpretation methods. Besides going through the relevant bibliography, I also considered the presentation of the established legal practices an important part of my research. The theses is focused around two questions: is there an effective source protection regulation existing in the field of Hungarian criminal proceedings; and what type of guarantees can be provided and incorporated in the Act on Criminal Proceedings to ensure that source protection can serve as a corner stone for the right to free expression of opinion. After reviewing the theoretic and practical feasibility of the subject matter cited in the beginning of the thesis, I concluded that making source protection a comprehensive legal institute would require, in part, both the clarification and extension of the currently valid and effective legislation framework. Therefore, I consider it an important aspect to increase the level of source protection by explicitly incorporating the right of freelance journalists to refuse to testify into applicable legislation up to the Act on Criminal Proceedings. Also, I think it is essential for the prevention of indirect identification of sources to extend the scope of protection to documents awaiting publication or to extend the scope of exemptions from seizure. In my opinion, applying a stricter approach to the conditions for the obligation of source identification would also help increase the level of source protection. Considering the aforementioned, I think that the responsibility for eliminating the legal interpretation uncertainties (currently resting on the shoulder of the officials of the judicature as a burden) mainly lies with the legislators. However, building self-regulating mechanisms for journalists (in the form of a Code of Ethics, for example) could also contribute to making the protection of information sources a real and comprehensive legal institute