Ethics on the Web

Posted on July 2, 1997

The Internet as a news-gathering and a news-broadcasting medium is exploding so quickly that those of us on the information highway barely have a chance to catch our breath -- much less to reflect and ponder what this means for our journalistic policies.

CBC Radio and Stereo now broadcast all their shows live on the Net.  The Southam chain has most of its papers on the web and is running several web-only news services. Many  journalists now regularly rely on Web search engines, sites and chat groups to gather material for their stories.

But so far,  most Canadian media organizations have paid little attention to journalistic policies and the Internet.  We ignore these issues at our peril.

 THE GOLDEN RULE:
 IF YOU'RE ON THE WEB, YOU ARE PUBLISHING OR  BROADCASTING
 

Anything you say or do on the Web can potentially be broadcast to millions of people.  If you make a statement on the Web, it could reach more people than your newspapers, your TV or radio stations combined.  The Web, by definition, is the most public and vast broadcasting system in the world -- SO WATCH WHAT YOU SAY!

This means that anything and everything in your company policy book  or unwritten policies  has to apply to all work you do on the Internet -- because almost anything you do on the Net is public.

I wouldn't make an allegation on the fifth estate about Acme Pollution Inc ruining a local river unless I could prove it.  I would not make that allegation either in a posting to a newsgroup on the Web unless I could back it up.  Because one way or another, Acme can find out what I broadcast on the Net.  If you don't believe me, check out DejaNews  [http://www.dejanews.com] and see how easy it is to track anyone's public postings on the net.

Based on this Golden Rule, here are five principles to keep in mind:
 

1./NOTHING IS PRIVATE

Communication on the Web is done is four principal ways: Web pages; news or chat groups; mailing lists or listservs; personal e-mail.  All but the last one are very public, and even personal e-mail is not really private.

WEB PAGES: Anything your show puts on its web page is obviously for public consumption.

But that also means if you aired  a controversial or legally-touchy piece on your show or newspaper and are now re-broadcasting it on the web (say with a transcript) you have to be careful how you intro, extro and present the material.

NEWSGROUPS:  These (Usenet) chatgroups are the Net's equivalent of bars.  A great place to meet people or pick up information (or vice versa...).

But if you post a message to an environmental newsgroup seeking information about Acme Pollution Inc, don't bad mouth or slander Acme.  I know of a researcher who posted all kinds of messages about a company in various newsgroups before he approached the company and by the time he contacted them, they asked him:  How come you've been asking all these things about us.

MAILING LISTS:  These  subscription e-mail discussion groups are somewhat more private -- because you have to subscribe to them rather than just browse. But  I recently ran a search engine on my name and found every message I had written to two journalism lists in the past two years -- basically, a history of every story I was researching on the net.  Fortunately, the messages were always simple requests for information on everything from Japanese crime reporters to Vatican researchers.   But watch it just the same ... for libel, slander and you also don't want  to let the competition scoop you on a story.

PERSONAL E-MAIL:  It's  no more private than a phone conversation.  At the very least, a copy of your mail stays with your server.  And what if you write a blistering memo to your boss or colleague and press the wrong button and you e-mail the message to the  "alt.sex.spanking"  chat group by mistake.  Or to Acme Pollution Inc?  See what I mean?

2./EVERYTHING IS PERMANENT

Anything you say on the Net could stay in someone's hard drive somewhere forever.  If you say something stupid, it will come back to haunt you.

Trust me.
 
3./DON'T DECEIVE

Don't join a breast cancer discussion group or an AIDS mailing list and pretend you are anything but what you are: an inquiring journalist.

In most cases, you can contact the human administrator of these groups and ask if the members would mind if you "lurk" (that's the term, believe it or not) or even post a request for information.

If you can't find a group leader, identify yourself as a  journalist, state the purpose of your "visit" and politely ask for the information you want.  be prepared for plenty of flames (nasty e-mail responses flooding your mailbox) though if you break netiquette.

4./DON'T BELIEVE

Good journalists should never believe anything they read somewhere unless you can prove it yourself.  The same applies to the Net -- only worse.

You might or might not believe a report in the Globe and Mail.  The problem with reading an article from the Globe on the net is that you can't even be 100% sure that what you're reading IS the Globe, much less true.

Hackers have doctored U.S. government sites and other Web pages.  There have been fake Clinton press releases issued on the Web.

Any information, facts or documents you retrieve on the Net should then be verified -- preferably with a phone call to the source to verify what is on the web did come from them and is accurate.

5./RESPECT OTHERS AND THEIR WORK

Can you quote from anyone or anything you see on the Net?

There is a chat group on the Net called "can.military.brats"  for children and family of Canadian armed forces personnel.  It is as public as any other chat group, so there is nothing stopping you from quoting what two people are saying, for example, about Boyle's resignation. By law, I suppose you don't need their permission to quote them; the Net as I have said over and over again, is a public place.

But out of simple courtesy -- and to verify its accuracy -- check with the author of the statement by writing them an e-mail asking for permission to quote them.  Then get on the phone and speak to them.  It's easy for someone to impersonate someone else on the net.  Maybe a child is using their parent's e-mail address.  Check before you quote.

Copyright is still a fuzzy issue on the Net.  Be very careful before reproducing sound, pictures, video and excerpts from articles unless you have checked all the rights.