However I think that surely in some circumstances it is ethical to publish such personal data..
I take the example of the Madeline McCann disappearance case. Every last detail about her family and her life were published world wide for months on end, and to this day details of her family as well as pictures of them are still being published. But surely they would not argue with this and claim that this in unethical. The McCann’s daughter went missing and without all the media attention and so much exposure the disappearance of their daughter would have gone un noticed and searches world wide would not have taken place. In this instance surely the personal invasion into their lives can only be seen as a good thing.
Another example is criminals... maybe if they were able to be exposed in such a way like celebrities are then people would be more aware of them and be able to report them. Criminals identity and personal information is kept more private than a Z list celebrity who is no harm to society, however alot of time and money is spent protecting these criminals that put us at risk. An example is John Venables who’s new identity was kept secret despite him being a criminal and the fact that he could still be a danger to society.
So I ask you.. When is it ethical to publish personal details? And does it depend on the situation and who is involved as to whether it is seen as ethical??
This is a fairly dark area as examples for criminals seem to be given so much more ethical protection than anyone else e.g they get new identity's to protect them but anyone else seems to get there life published
ReplyDeleteThe situation is massive when it comes to what information should be published, in the case of the McCann's the parents said that the information could be published as they were trying to find their daughter and they had to give out as much information as possible for people to try to able to track her down. Think about if you were in the situation of the McCann's and you had a daughter or son taken, you would want the press to publish everything about them to get the them back as you have nothing to hide.
ReplyDeleteIt becomes more of a issue when someone has something to hide, and you are going to release information that can change the way that they live
well if the McCann's allowed it then its not a breech in ethical standards as they have given permission so on that side its not breaking any rules.
ReplyDeleteCriminals identity and personal information needs to be kept private because otherwise people could try and get their revenge on the criminals rather than letting the Police deal with it.
ReplyDeleteThinking about this point more I never quite realised how much personal information is given out about people without their consent. In academic pieces of work I think that it happens a lot less than in newspapers and magazine for example but to complete most news stories personal information needs to be given out. If a newspaper article just said girl caught speeding no one would read it, but if it said a 15 year old girl from Portsmouth caught speeding in a Ferrari then it would get a lot more readers.
ReplyDeleteInformation is what people want to read, everyone wants gossip that's why in all the 'Woman's Magazines' they go into massive details over names, places, events so the public will read the gossip.
ReplyDeleteAnother case where a large amount of information for published was in the Josef Fritzl case (Link Below)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/joseffritzl/5010067/Josef-Fritzl-trial-murder-and-incest-case-that-shocked-the-world.html
The press published everything they had about the case, dates, times, places, events, people, pictures. This is what the made the 'story' something that everyone was fascinated about