I’d guess the distinction would be more ‘public interest disclosure’ rather than ‘officialness’ (after all, a lot of whistleblowing ends up in the media because of inadequacy in ‘formal’ channels). Or, with apologies to Yes Minister: “I give confidential briefings, you leak, he has been charged under section 2a of the Official Secrets Act”.
The question seems to be one of proportionality: investigative or undercover journalists often completely betray the trust and (reasonable) expectations of privacy of its subjects/targets, and this can ethically vary from reprehensible to laudable depending on the value of what it uncovers (compare paparrazzi to Panorama). Where this nets out for disclosing these slack group messages is unclear to me.
I’d guess the distinction would be more ‘public interest disclosure’ rather than ‘officialness’ (after all, a lot of whistleblowing ends up in the media because of inadequacy in ‘formal’ channels). Or, with apologies to Yes Minister: “I give confidential briefings, you leak, he has been charged under section 2a of the Official Secrets Act”.
The question seems to be one of proportionality: investigative or undercover journalists often completely betray the trust and (reasonable) expectations of privacy of its subjects/targets, and this can ethically vary from reprehensible to laudable depending on the value of what it uncovers (compare paparrazzi to Panorama). Where this nets out for disclosing these slack group messages is unclear to me.