Informant

An informant is a person who passes on its special knowledge to others; it is due to the informant activities and dissemination of information is not equivalent to a whistleblower ( " Skandalaufdecker "). In many areas informant is used neutral in politics, he is more of a negative connotation.

Policy

An informant contributes to certain third parties ( service ) services or benefits or information. This information usually constitutes insider knowledge that has earned the informant by his social intercourse and is not, or not easily accessible to outsiders.

Unlike a spy an informant of that is not a " paid employee " who wants the information. He remains independent of his client and uses his insider knowledge rather to be a small " extra income " to earn or to secure other benefits or he gives his information from idealism even further.

The consideration for the information is usually individually set or negotiated by the informant. This is usually about money. In Germany such money must be taxed: the flat rate for informants is ten percent. The " value" of the informant attaches the information may depend on many factors. Urgency and explosiveness are factors that play a special role. So much needed information will also be particularly expensive. The same applies to information the disclosure of which is a high risk to the informant.

In the circles from which the informant has his insider knowledge and the "outside " carries, he is called a traitor or spy.

Police and intelligence

Informant is someone who, in one case here - supplies interesting information police, customs and intelligence agencies to guarantee the confidentiality of insider information about crime, political extremism or other for the corresponding authority - with or without charge. In Germany the RiStBV in Appendix D contain a 2.1 for their definition. If the informant regularly active, it is called "V- man ". The use of informants on the basis of the common guidelines of the Minister of Justice / Senators and the Minister of the Interior / Senators of on the use of informants, as well as on the use of trusted third parties ( informants ) and undercover investigators as part of the prosecution, in the countries are set in different versions in force.

The informant is assured by the prosecutor or police confidentiality, it knows the prosecutor's usually not the informant's identity. It may be invoked only if the clarification would otherwise be difficult or hopeless much. Confidentiality can only be assured if the informant that disclosure of its activities, considerable disadvantages for law enforcement authorities or he is seriously compromised.

Journalism

An informant in journalism resembles the political informants. It is for the journalist a source of information in an area where the journalist can even research difficult. According to § 53 Section 1 No. 5 Code of Criminal Procedure is " those who participate or participated professionally in the preparation, manufacture or distribution of printed works, broadcasts, film reports, or information or opinion forming serving information and communication services " refuse to give evidence to ( sources - or protection of informants ). The European Court of Human Rights considers the protection of journalists' sources as a prerequisite freedom of the press.

As the journalist as opposed to politicians informants not intended for personal aggrandizement, but (ideally) to educate the public, they have no negative image.

Linguistics

An informant (also called responsible person) is as speakers of a language or a dialect source for linguistic research and findings. Most Informant is a native speaker of the relevant language or the appropriate dialect. For their mother tongue linguists are often their own informants. Information orally or in writing recorded or recorded tapes or on film or video. The help of many informants enabled the development of Sprachatlasses.

Also for more general research informants are a valuable aid. So a member of the Hopi helped ( an Indian tribe ) Benjamin Whorf as an informant in his speech research. The study of the language of the Hopi was one of the foundations for the further development of the Sapir -Whorf hypothesis.