Newspaper should not need to reveal sources, says expert<BR>

The Sunday Star-Times newspaper may not need to reveal its sources to an inquiry into allegations the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) spied on Maori organisations and individuals.

The inquiry follows claims in the newspaper that three spies had told it of a major SIS campaign, called Operation Leaf, which targeted Maori organisations and individuals -- including some who were now members of the Maori Party -- over several years.

Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday announced that the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Justice Paul Neazor, would look into the spying allegations.

She also said the people making the allegations should come forward and the journalists behind the story should reveal their sources to the inquiry.

The newspaper has refused that call, saying that it has an ethical obligation to keep the identity of its sources secret.

But Waikato University director of international relations and security studies Ron Smith told NZPA today that it should not be essential for the Star-Times to reveal its sources to Justice Neazor.

He said the SIS was a small organisation and if the people making the claims were in fact spies, they should be easily identified.

He said the SIS was meant to have a high degree of investigative capacity.

"If they can't investigate and find this out then who can? ... it's their stock in trade doing this sort of thing," he said.

"From the content of it, what these documents are supposed to be about, they should be able to identify pretty closely what section and what persons probably were involved.

"So I don't know to what extent a refusal to reveal sources at the Sunday Star-Times' end would be a problem."

He said if the Star-Times story was correct then several people were involved, which would make such an operation hard to cover up.

However, he said he had some doubts about the story, particularly since Jack Sanders, a former Labour candidate whose real name is James Stubbs, has been identified by the Herald as a source.

Sanders, who is not a spy, clearly lacked credibility, he said.

"He reads like someone who is living a fantasy life."

Media law expert and Canterbury University professor John Burrows today told National Radio Justice Neazor could not compel the story's authors to provide him with information.

The largest penalty he could inflict on anyone refusing to co-operate with him was a $5000 fine.

Mr Smith said Justice Neazor's inquiry should be allowed to run its course and if at the end of that it was deemed he was having trouble then the paper's refusal to reveal its sources would become a valid issue.

"We have a process. We have someone who has access to the people who can oblige them to talk to him and provide him with material and a process whereby he investigates. At this stage I would be very content to let him do that," he said.

"It may be that the area where he can't find things out might be very small."

- NZPA