By: Joe Strupp Associated Press Managing Editors have joined with The Toronto Star in a survey of editors that seeks their views on requests to "unpublish" online items.
In a letter to editors seeking participation in the survey, Star Public Editor Kathy English wants views on whether such items should simply be removed or if an explanation is needed after the change. Also, the survey asks, how can such corrections or changes be completely successful if earlier versions of the item have already been copied or downloaded? And should the changes be made years later if someone mentioned in a story finds the item and objects to it?
"The reasons for these requests to 'unpublish' -- a word media organizations have coined to describe such requests to remove content -- are varied," she writes. "Some believe the content report is inaccurate or unfair. Others experience what might be called 'source remorse' and rethink what they want the public to know about them. In some cases, this occurs many months, indeed years, after original publication when these people 'Google' themselves and come to understand that the news article about them lives on online."
To find out more about the survey or to participate, click
here.
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