Making Use of Your Contacts
Gossip and rumour are no substitute for fact, so it doesn’t do to believe everything you are told. Scepticism is healthy as long as it does not become obsessive and blind you to accepting the evidence of your own eyes and ears.
The double-check
Contacts who seek you out may be genuinely anxious to help or may have their own axes to grind. It happens. If in doubt cross-check with other sources. Keep faith with your informants and respect their confidentiality if that is what they wish. Some reporters have gone to prison rather than reveal their sources of information. But be careful. Do not make promises you cannot keep. In some circumstances the act of receiving information can in itself be regarded as being in contravention ...
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