If people are posting on the site under the express agreement that the group is private and posts will not be reproduced in public, then what the reporter did is unethical in the vast majority of cases, including this one.
We are on a march to losing our collective faith in journalism and leading the way are careless reporters and editors who fancy themselves public advocates.
Wait, so the ethics of journalism require accepting TOS/EULAs? If that's the case, then quite a lot of very important investigative journalism in the past few decades is ruled invalid! (despite the touch of sarcasm, I'm also genuinely curious)
Journalism ethics do contemplate situations where otherwise unreportable news of crucial importance to the public should be published. Same for news about things that happen in private but are related to public figures. There can often be very serious consequences for the organization and reporter in these cases.
Well if you break the terms of service for a site, you shouldn't be surprised when you are permabanned. No more hip neighborhood social network for you.
Nope. A journalist isn't obliged to respect an agreement they didn't accept. The user who sent them the screenshot may have done something unethical, though.
We are on a march to losing our collective faith in journalism and leading the way are careless reporters and editors who fancy themselves public advocates.