Editor’s Note: Journalists must balance information and safety

By Danny Kelleher
Editor-in-Chief

When I saw an article about Aaron Swartz after he hanged himself a month ago, all I knew was that he was some legendary “hacktivist.” Recently, though, I’ve been reading up on him – about his upbringing, about his activism and about the ideals he fought for – and I have become fascinated with the world he envisioned.

Swartz was a super-genius, one who dropped out of Stanford after a year, helped create Reddit, contributed to the development of the first RSS feed and famously hacked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s JSTOR, one of the largest scholarly digital archives in the world, releasing more than 5 million files onto the internet to be downloaded for free. Swartz was also the leader behind the grassroots opposition to SOPA and PIPA, condemning the legislation through a petition that gained hundreds of thousands of signatures.

The philosophy of Swartz and others, who oftentimes use illegal methods to expose information previously unavailable to the public, seriously confounds me. Journalism’s identity is largely based around pursuit of the truth. Many of the greatest reporters made names for themselves by exposing scandal or corruption. But, at the same time, there comes a point where a line needs to be drawn.

The world that so many of these anonymous hacktivists envision is one of free information, with no limits to what people are able to access. The morals behind these opinions are there, and Swartz was undoubtedly a proponent of the common masses. Often times journalists will contact psychologists for their stories for months before releasing them to ensure that the information they are releasing is given in the least harmful way possible. Reporting information as quickly possible is an admirable goal, but reporters always need to consider the cost of information for all before bringing delicate issues to light.

But at the same time, some documents and files undoubtedly should be leaked. People should not be blocked from accessing certain information unless it is truly threatening to national security.

Journalists must strike a balance between informing their readers and withholding information to keep the readers safe. Finding this middle point is the key to excellent journalistic integrity.

It is truly a tragedy that Aaron Swartz’ brilliance, passion and morality are no longer with us. His vision of an ideal file-sharing society, though radical, had its merits.