As part of its ongoing collaboration with WikiLeaks, The Hindu is reporting on the contents of a fresh tranche of documents made available to us. We decided to participate in this project after considerable reflection, as it poses complex ethical questions. The Stratfor e-mails, obtained by a group of hackers who targeted the firm's servers, differ from earlier WikiLeaks document-troves, in that the e-mails are not official documents but privately-held material. Like governments, private corporations and entities also generate material that is meant to be confidential. However, confidentiality and privacy cannot be invoked as a cover for wrongdoing or unethical behaviour. If that were so, all investigative journalism would become impossible.
In this case, the unusual nature of Stratfor's business — in essence, providing intelligence to clients who include governments and large corporations, some embroiled in serious controversies, like Dow Chemical — means that there is a compelling public interest in studying the e-mails to see if they cast light on corporate or governmental wrong-doing. The Hindu is acutely aware that our use of this material imposes special obligations upon us, in particular to respect the privacy of the legitimate business activities and private correspondence of Stratfor, its staff and those they may have corresponded with. In our reportage, we shall do our utmost to respect this obligation, by only publishing material if it clearly points to corporate or government wrong-doing or unethical behaviour, and thus meets the test of compelling public interest.
Editor
