I found a McMaster student union executive's folder in the desk in my econometrics class this afternoon. I know it belonged to the executive becuase I opened the folder and his business card was in the front. When I opened it, I noticed a letter about a student union personnel matter that was obviously supposed to be confidential.
Without thinking about it much, I returned the folder to the executive's office after my class. But when I mentioned the folder to a friend of mine who works at the McMaster student newspaper, he said the newspaper had been trying to find out details on the issue in the letter, and noted the folder would have been a great story if I held onto it.
But as a journalist myself, did I do the right thing returning the documents?
Or is the fact that a high level student union administrator left sensitive documents in public news at the campus level? Certainly, when federal cabinet minister Maxime Bernier left classified documents at his girlfriend's house, it dominated the news for weeks. And when natural resources minister Lisa Raitt's aide left behind classified documents at a CTV station, CTV had no qualms sharing their contents with the public.
Did I cost the McMaster student paper a chance to get a juicy story by not holding onto the documents? Or did I do the right thing by returning something that an individual clumsily left in a classroom by mistake? I'm not too sure.
Biden takes a wrong step
1 day ago
Nope! :P He left it lying around. Just because you read it doesn't mean you have to share/publish it through the paper...but if it was something that students needed to know then finders keepers as long as you can't get sued.
ReplyDeleteIdeally your actions should draw attention to the mistake (to create a disincentive so people are more careful with sensitive documents), while preserving the privacy of the student in question (otherwise a number of innocent people will have their private matters made public, against their will). Obviously a hard line to walk. I think you did a good job of the latter.. as to the former, perhaps you should keep your eye out for similar situations in the future? If it happens again you can easily make it public.
ReplyDeletewell dave are you a means justify the ends or the ends justify the means kind of guy?
ReplyDeletepersonally i wouldn't be able to resist something handed to me on a platter like that despite any ethical framework
leif
Yeah I'm still not sure. I guess I could have photocopied the documents and then returned the folder, and thought about what to do with the documents afterwards. But I felt slimy looking in the folder to start with.
ReplyDeleteI would have taken the photocopy route.
ReplyDelete