Should journalists give up their sources in criminal cases?

The story goes like this:

Journalist Laurent Richard had been conducting research for an episode titled "Pedophiles: The Predators" for France 2 network's hidden-camera investigative series, Les Infiltrés, when he met several pedophile suspects online and in person and eventually turned them in to the police.

A question arises: Did Richard betray his profession?

Richard assumed the role of a 12-year-old girl as-well-as a pedophile online to get into the networks of child pornography collectors. Afterwards, he visited a convicted pedophile in Montreal and secretly recorded the man on camera describing his plans to target more children. 

"Journalists don't reveal their sources," Dominique Pradalié, Secretary General of the French National Union of Journalists told AFP news agency. "It's a question of principle."

This kind of relationship is also protected by law, Yves Bordenave of Le Monde said.

"Strictly respecting it allows sources [judges, criminals, politicians] to deliver journalists information, with total assurance they will never be denounced, even under court order," he wrote in the paper. By abandoning this principal, Les Infiltrés has "invented a new genre in the profession: police auxiliary journalism."

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