In court last night, The Age's editor-in-chief, Paul Ramadge, said the removal of the computers, which contained a great deal of confidential information beyond the scope of the investigation, would cut to the heart of the paper's code to protect sources. He explained to Justice Karin Emerton that investigative journalists received a lot of highly confidential information from a range of sources and the release of such information, inadvertently or otherwise, would be extremely damaging. After hearing evidence from Victoria Police about the challenge of analysing the computers at The Age's Media House premises rather than at police headquarters, Justice Emerton ordered that police be restrained from removing the computers, that they inspect them at Media House and that The Age provide access and assistance. Earlier yesterday, detectives and IT experts from the e-crime unit spent about seven hours at The Age in legal discussion and going through electronic and hard-copy files in the newsroom. The Age revealed in November last year that the Labor Party had a database containing personal details of thousands of Victorians and that campaign workers had access to them prior to the election. The search warrant executed by the detectives was aimed at determining whether Age staff had illegally tapped into that database.

In a media release, Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood said the reporters had the backing of the organisation. ''It would be extremely disappointing if quality journalism, the public interest in the story and the integrity of what we stand for - including protecting our sources at all costs - suffers because powerful individuals didn't like what we revealed,'' he said. The Age's stories last year showed that the database contained sensitive health and financial information about voters without their knowledge. Prior to the court action, Mr Ramadge said: ''While we are co-operating with police, we have expressed our grave concerns over the risk that our sources for the report may be identified. ''We protect our sources at all costs. It is a code that cuts to the heart of everything we do as journalists. It is about trust. It is about ethics. If the sources for this report are identified through the police searches, even inadvertently, it will be a dark day for journalism.'' He said Royce Millar and Nick McKenzie, the reporters who wrote the stories, had acted entirely appropriately. ''They were approached by someone with legitimate concerns about the content of the database. That source provided authorised access to the database.''

Mr Ramadge said the story had significant public interest because it was about a powerful, highly influential organisation that was collecting information about voters without their knowledge and giving campaign workers access to it. He urged anyone in doubt about the importance of the story to read the original report. It is printed again today on page 8. Louise Connor, state secretary of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, said the story was clearly in the public interest and the reporters involved were bound by a code of ethics. ''I have discussed the story with them and their actions at the time and I am satisfied that they accessed the database only for the purposes of the story they published,'' Ms Connor said. Victoria Police did not conduct interviews at The Age yesterday.

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