Legalization poses challenges and questions for newsrooms
Now that possession of up to 30 grams (one ounce or a big handful) of cannabis is legal in Canada, what should become of the many thousands of news reports, published across Canada in past years and now easily accessible online, of individuals charged with simple pot possession?
I expect newsrooms across this country will face this question head on in coming days as people charged and convicted when marijuana possession was a criminal offence request to have news reports of those charges disappear from the online record published first on news sites and now accessible via Google and other search engines.
Requests to remove news reports of individuals charged with criminal offences from the online archive are a regular occurrence in newsrooms across Torstar. At the Toronto Star, we receive at least one such request every week. My response is to cite Torstar’s policy on “unpublishing.”
That policy states: “Except in rare, often legal, circumstances — which must be agreed upon by senior editors — we do not remove content from our websites or archives.” In practice, that includes removing names from news reports of criminal charges.
The policy states that there may be “rare cases” when fairness or “humane” considerations call for removing online content but makes clear that “Any decision to remove published content should be weighed against the public’s right to know and the historical record.”
In practice, when individuals make a case for unusual duress by ongoing publication of news reports of criminal charges in which they have been cleared by the courts, any decisions to remove or amend the news report are usually made by a committee of senior editors and newsroom lawyers. No one individual should make the call to make news — a public record of what happened — disappear from the internet.
In cases where charges are withdrawn, or individuals acquitted, we update the article with a prominent note to state the outcome of the charges. That is in line with the imperative for accuracy and fairness and transparency of the public record. Senior editors across Torstar’s daily and community newsrooms have looked in past weeks at how our unpublishing policy and newsroom practices apply to past news reports of marijuana-related charges and convictions. The strong consensus from newsroom leaders is that our unpublishing policy must stand, largely because, as one editor said, “it was illegal at the time and right now those charges stand.”
It is my view that this stance is complicated somewhat now by the news this week that Ottawa will move to pardon the many thousands of people convicted of simple possession of pot under 30 grams to allow those individuals to “shed the burden and the stigma of that record.” When this comes about, would that in effect mean that it is easier to get an official pardon from the government on simple marijuana convictions than it is to obtain a media “pardon” on continued publication of the news report of those charges found through Google? What consideration should be given here to the possible ongoing harm to the life and livelihood of the individuals involved?
On the other hand, is the reality that news organizations report what happened and what happened was those individuals were convicted of breaking the law in effect in Canada at that time. Making any accurate news disappear is a significant ethical concern in journalism and arguably, not aligned with the greater public interest. Stating the subsequent news of what happened in prominent notes appended to stories in any cases of news reports where a federal pardon will apply is both fair and accurate and maintains a public media record of a long era of marijuana charges and convictions in Canada.
Clearly, this is not a simple issue. I believe further thought and discussion about the policy, practice and the public interest is required in newsrooms across Torstar in coming weeks as we gain greater understanding of the new laws and their implications for both individuals and the public’s right to know in this digital era.