CBC Journalists Cannot Add News Sources as Facebook Friends

CBC is probably the first media company who has framed a formal "Facebook Policy" for their employees.

The policy says that CBC journalist should avoid adding sources or contacts as "Facebook friends" (the common trend is that when journalists interview someone, they often connect with each other on LinkedIn or Facebook after the conversation.)

Here's the reason stated in the CBC Facebook policy document:

"It may compromise your work by letting friends see other friends on your network," the policy document says. "It may also not be in your interest to identify yourself as a 'friend' of a source on their network."

"In the context of basic reporting, you do not want one source to 'see' what another source says, nor do you want your private 'conversation' with a source becoming public. Adding sources as 'friends' makes the management of this much trickier."