A journalistic deja-vu: political party requests personal sources

Journalists are routinely faced with issues regarding access to information, being summoned to hand over data that would reveal unnamed sources. When a journalist gives up their sources, they are breaking a promise of anonymity that allows people to come forward and be whistleblowers. Thus, maintaining ethics in this line of work — more often than not — has journalists refusing to give in.

Journalists are routinely faced with issues regarding access to information, being summoned to hand over data that would reveal unnamed sources. When a journalist gives up their sources, they are breaking a promise of anonymity that allows people to come forward and be whistleblowers. Thus, maintaining ethics in this line of work — more often than not — has journalists refusing to give in.

Canadian politicians have recently faced their own sort of ‘source scandal,’ and though much different than the issues journalists face — as this recent case doesn’t force politicians to break a promise with anyone who handed them over information, but rather just invades their own privacy — the overarching debate over confidentiality, and thus the freedom to express or not to express, still lies at the heart of the matter.

It seems the scandal of New York’s ‘Craigslist Senator’ Chris Lee, whose leaked shirtless photo resulted in his speedy flight from the U.S. Congress, has raised similar fears north of the border. The pre-election preparations of the April 17th election that will replace British Colombia’s (B.C.) former New Democratic Party (NDP) leader, Carole James, left politicians digitally vulnerable.

According to The Canadian Press, “political parties routinely subject candidates to extensive vetting, requiring them to disclose anything about their personal lives that could prove embarrassing during a campaign.” In this regard, the NDP asked candidates to hand over their social media passwords, as a means to reveal anything hidden by Facebook’s privacy settings that may prove inconsistent with who they portray themselves to be on the campaign trail. The party gave candidates’ login information to an independent researcher, who signed a confidentiality agreement, and ‘crept’ the suspects for Facebook mishaps. 

Elizabeth Denham, B.C.’s information and privacy commissioner — worried the decision might have been running out of line with provincial legislation — told The Canadian Press this is a privacy issue because “…giving somebody the keys to the castle, the password to a social media profile, really opens up a lot of information that an individual may want to keep private.”

On the contrary, provincial secretary for the NDP, Jan O’Brien, told The Globe and Mail: “Someone who is running for the leadership of our party is asking the B.C. NDP to put all the party’s resources behind them to help them become premier of the province so we think it’s really important that we avoid any surprises.” Ray Lam, whose embarrassing Facebook photo cost him his 2009 NDP campaign, believes in the vetting process and the need for a professional communications search and find team that can say: “'These are political time bombs. We need to get rid of them.'”

But one specific NDP candidate dared to disagree with O’Brien and Lam – choosing the route that journalists often tend to. Nicholas Simons, Powell River – Sunshine Coast MLA, who handed in his nomination package without passwords, believed the party was simply asking for too much. However, after much media attention and using his right to freedom of expression to challenge the source demands, Simons — who understands the power of social media (he has his own blog and tweets via @NicholasSimons) eventually came to an agreement with the party.

CBC News reported that on March 7th, Simon’s case was settled: “…instead of passwords, he is providing evidence to the B.C. NDP showing that all aspects of his social networking sites are public.” Initially worried that the handing over of passwords would violate both his privacy and the privacy of his Facebook friends — which whom personal messages are shared — Simons told News1130: “We found a place where we could respect the need for a good vetting process and to protect the privacy of me and those who've contacted me.”