Deplorable breach defies belief

Freelance journalist Tracey Spicer’s intentions to lift the profile of the #MeToo movement in Australia were honourable. Her failure to protect the identities and details of three women regarding rape, harassment and domestic violence in a preview version of an ABC documentary circulated to media outlets, however, has compounded a difficult and sensitive problem. While one of the three women concerned has died, the fiasco has potentially added to the others’ trauma. From their first day in a newsroom, or during journalism courses at university, young reporters are taught the simplest of lessons: confidential sources are sacrosanct. Exposing the identity of a confidential source, even inadvertently, is inexcusable. Journalists have faced trial, persecution and jail over that inviolable principle.

Spicer’s insistence that she is deeply distressed and “truly sorry … gutted and devastated by what has happened” is sincere. But as domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty said on Friday, the former newsreader should stop blaming others for her “blatant and egregious mistake” that saw the details of the three victims exposed without their knowledge or consent.

At the National Press Club on Wednesday, Spicer’s admission that perhaps she had been “naive” to allow #MeToo stories she had received to be filmed, identifying three of the women who had come forward, was a woeful understatement. She said she agreed to take part in the program on the understanding that any information identifying women would be “blurred, redacted and de-identified”. The fact she was not the producer was irrelevant. She was responsible for safeguarding her sources, in this case alleged victims of abuse, by ensuring the material was not seen by anyone else, let alone filmed. The ABC has apologised for releasing an early version of the documentary “due to human error” to a small number of accredited media under embargo. Spicer homed in on a significant problem. In 2017 she tweeted: “Currently I am investigating two long-term offenders in our media industry. Please, contact me privately to tell your stories.” While she expected 15 to 20 responses, more than 2000 people shared their stories. Whether identified or not in the preview, those who came forward inevitably will feel betrayed, exposed and vulnerable. The privacy breach, unfortunately, could make other rape, harassment and domestic violence victims, as well as whistleblowers in general, more reluctant to share information, regardless of assurances of confidentiality. Ms Batty is right to hope that women and families in domestic violence situations will not be deterred from coming forward. As she says, an avenue for sharing such stories to create change is important.

Protecting the identity and safety of sources brave enough to tell their stories is fundamental to journalism. It also goes to the heart of the media coalition’s Right to Know campaign, which was sparked by an AFP raid on the home of News Corp press gallery journalist Annika Smethurst and another raid targeting journalists at ABC . In both instances the stories that provoked the raids came from confidential sources. Reporting the facts should never be a crime. The fallout from the bungle over #MeToo could be that others with important information do not come forward. As a result, wrongdoing that warrants public exposure could remain hidden. The bungle is a setback for journalism. It also is an aberration not to be repeated.