Law, ethics and news literacy

When I was writing a piece about street harassment targeted towards minors, I encountered some ethical nuances. On the one hand, I was telling powerful stories, and having a name attached would enhance the credibility of the story. But on the other hand, some of the girls' descriptions of their experiences with harassment were vivid and graphic, and I didn't want their words to permanently stay plastered on the web underneath their names. Ultimately, we left the choice up to our sources, but omitted some of the most disturbing quotes. It was a challenging decision to make, but considering the long-term goal of minimizing potential harm, some of the descriptions didn't need to be included and had a greater chance of causing the sources future discomfort. Reporting within the realm of minors and harassment is difficult and complex, but, with our advisor's support, we ran the story truthfully and earnestly and were able to maintain their names with a couple disturbing quotes chopped out.