The illegal disclosure of personal data of leading German politicians, the media, dominated for days. But journalists must also ask yourself, what do you do with the data itself.
For journalists, the data Theft has two aspects: The media reports about the investigation, but you also need to decide whether the data themselves have value of news. The “image”-newspaper, for example, want to publish any personal information such as private Chat history, phone numbers, credit card numbers, but the data to evaluate and then see if you reported later about possible criminal acts, corruption and similar. The “mirror” wants a detailed report about the affair, but also the personal data itself is not the issue.
Out Spähter Green Politician Robert Habeck
However, it is legitimate for the media to give any of the stolen data of Celebrities – Angela Merkel on party leaders to entertainers, in connection with any subject? It has become common in recent years that journalists will use information submitted by a Whistleblower platforms such as Wikileaks is illegal. Not everyone finds the right one.
Serious Offence or socks order?
Frank Anywhere, Chairman of the German journalists ‘ Association, says, in some cases, it is justified to publish such information: “If something is public on the market, it is legitimate to deal with and confront in case of suspicion, the public Person. It is a source that is problematic, but it is a source”, said Everywhere in the German wave.
The Problem becomes bigger and bigger
He attaches great importance to the distinction, whether the information suggests a suspicion that a Person in public life has committed a Crime. “There is a public interest. In purely private matters – who when bought, which socks on the Internet – is, in my opinion, there is no public interest.” This ethical consideration belong to the journalistic professionalism. Everywhere, journalists are likely not alone in the hope of finding anything to collect huge amounts of data going through: “Without any suspicion of private data, or to go on the search, I think, in fact, for the profession is ethically problematic.”
A question of democracy
As the message of the recent extensive data theft at the 4. January has been publicized, has also dealt with Deutsche Welle, the information with great caution. Images of the Twitter Account were not published by us, while the Account was still active, to spread the stolen data. DW editors have looked at the data on the Account, but the information is not stored or you in Detail scours.
The resulting harm to the affected individuals appears to be slightly mitigated, that some of the data are either wrong or outdated. This applies, for example, apparently some of the phone numbers, how Concerned have confirmed.
The security authorities in the criticism to have failed
But whether right or wrong, when hundreds of politicians being spied on, is not for the Federal government is an embarrassment of the first order, especially since it is the first Time. Accordingly, critical of the opposition have spoken to politicians about the reaction of Horst Seehofer-run interior Ministry. “In the confusion and the unclear information from the last few days, we have to ask whether the Minister of the interior, it is clear that IT security is one of the Central issues for our democracy,” said Anton Hofreiter of the Green.