January 05, 2005

What public good was served?

Privacy law handcuffs government

It is now grimly probable that the tsunami disaster in Asia 10 days ago has claimed the lives of some 150 Canadian tourists in Thailand. Today the Star is publishing the best information available to Ottawa about the missing Canadians. Handcuffed by privacy laws, the federal government is unable to release the list of names it has compiled from reports by worried friends and relatives.

We believe it is a matter of overwhelming public interest that the information should flow freely so relatives or friends in Canada can tell the authorities if they know someone on the missing list is, in fact, safe.

— Giles Gherson Editor-in-Chief

That editor's note greeted readers of today's Toronto Star in a little blue box on the front page. It is the Star's justification for one of the most questionable journalistic decisions I can remember - publishing a list of the Canadian dead and missing from the Asian Tsunami. What's worse, it also declares them all dead. Surely that isn't the Star's declaration to make.

The newspaper admits its list is not accurate - the names change day-by-day. It says the government cannot release the list, yet it has a copy. The list has about 150 names, many of which are common, few of which have ages or dates of birth, none of which have places of residence. The newspaper says it found that some of the people on the list are still alive, yet it left them on the published list with a little asterix to let us know they are okay - gee, thanks.

The Star did this because, in its estimation, the publication of the list is in the "overwhelming public interest," but I am struggling to determine what public interest is served.

The excuse that relatives will now be able to tell authorities a person on the list is safe simply doesn't pass the sniff test. The government knows there will be people on the list who are safe and will work to ensure the list is accurate before a final number is released.

There is no allegation that the Canadian Government is withholding information from families. In fact, the publication of the list will undoubtedly result in attention the families and friends of those on the list were neither anticipating or desiring. It is difficult to see, then, how their interest was served.

For the rest of us, surely all we want to know is how badly our fellow citizens were effected. To satisfy that public interest the raw number is all that is required. We don't need the names, unless that is what the families want - it should have been up to them.

The only public interest that I can think is served by the publication of the list is one that definitely should not be served. It is the voyeuristic public interest that tunes in to watch live police chases on television. The one that causes people to search the internet for the latest Al-Qaeda beheading video. The one that causes drivers to rubberneck on the highway as they pass an accident in the hope of seeing some blood.

At the end of the day, only the narrow corporate interest of the Star was served by this outrageous abuse of the public trust: they sold a few more newspapers today.

Posted by maxthecat at January 5, 2005 12:06 PM

http://www.maxsmewsings.com/mt/archives/2005/01/what_public_good_was_served.php