I receive feedback on our coverage every day. But this past week, a slew of emails, phone calls, comments and office visits centered around the same question: Why did The Hatchet publish the names of two 19-year-old females who were arrested for drug use in Munson Hall?
It is widespread and common journalistic practice to include the names of individuals who were arrested when reporting on crimes. Illicit drug use is a crime.
If you get arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department, it’s likely that we will get the public report – which includes your name – and write about it. And we always have.
If you ask us to remove content from our website – whether now, in a month or somewhere down the line when you realize an article about your arrest pops up in Google searches – we won’t. And we never have.
We will never remove published material from our archives. In the regrettable circumstance that we made a mistake, The Hatchet immediately posts a correction or clarification to right the record.
In our 109th year, we are as committed as ever to bringing the truth to our readers fairly, accurately and diligently. And that means chronicling the good and the bad.
Priya Anand, a senior majoring in journalism, is the Hatchet’s editor in chief.