University Case Study: Ethical Dilemma in Website Development & Law

This case study examines an ethical dilemma faced by a public servant, Han, a developer, who included news links on a government tourism website. The links inadvertently featured suppressed court cases, leading to embarrassment and legal concerns. The assignment, using the Thomas White methodology, explores the ethical, professional, and legal issues involved. It highlights the responsibilities of both the developer and the IT manager, Sally, and considers the implications of Australian law regarding the publication of suppressed information. The analysis suggests that the news broadcast website, which provided the problematic links, should be held primarily responsible for the ethical and legal breach. This solution offers insights into handling ethical dilemmas in web development and the importance of adhering to legal regulations.

Running head: SOLVING AN ETHICAL DILEMMA
Solving an Ethical Dilemma
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOLVING AN ETHICAL DILEMMA
Background of the case
The case study in this regard describes a case about a public servant called Han who is
a developer employed under the state government. He has been appointed the job to develop a
website for the tourism industry by his IT manager Sally. To make the webpage more appealing,
Han had added links to global news services on the website. However, later it was found that
these news links also featured few court cases which were under suppression order since they
were still pending court orders. These created a huge embarrassment for the government since
they featured on the website. Sally had never seen the website before its launch, however, it
was impossible for her to check on every link that was being posted on the website. It was her
responsibility now to stop the recurrence of this issue and also to impose responsibility.
With the help of the Thomas White methodology, the following case study would be
evaluated to find a solution for this ethical dilemma.
Ethical Issues
According to the Thomas White methodology, it is essential that a person should go by
all the consequences of the actions in question and their effect on people. Ethical issues only
arise when a person cannot come to terms with his moral equilibrium with his actions.
In this case, Han, the developer, should have checked for any legal obligations before
including a global news service link in the website. The news link provider should also have
checked before publishing a news for the suppressed court orders (Shapiro and Stefkovich
2016). Again, Sally could also be held responsible for not testing the website before its launch
as being the IT manager, it was her responsibility to test all the aspects of the website before it
was made public.
Professional Issues
Professionally as well, Han and Sally both were wrong in certain aspects. It was Han’s
responsibility to inform Sally, his manager, before implementing a news report link to brighten
up the webpage. Again, Sally also had the duty to test the website before it was even launched.
Therefore, professionally, both the developer and the IT manager were at fault
(Acs.org.au. 2018). The ethical dilemma was raised because the actions were not thought
through. Both of them had no idea how their decisions and actions could affect people.
Legal Issues
As per the Australian legislation of The Court Suppression and Non-Publication Act 2010
(NSW) (CSPO ACT) publication of any discrete information about suppressed court cases could
be penalized (Butler & Rodrick 2015). Therefore, the publication of the details about these court
cases have put Han and Sally into trouble as they have made these discrete information
accessible to the public eye. This onus can also be imposed upon the news broadcast link
provider who had initially held the information about the court cases in the first place. If Han and
Sally were to be held responsible for the misconduct, the original news broadcaster could not be
kept out of it as well.
Solution to the ethical dilemma
The only solution to the ethical dilemma Sally was going through was whom to impose
the responsibility of the misconduct upon. As per the Australian law suggests, the person who
made the discrete information public affecting the people related to the suppressed cases were
to be blamed (Roberts 2015). This could either be the developer Han or the news broadcast
website. After the case study is though through, it is virtuous that the news report website
should be held responsible for not abiding by the Australian legislation.

2SOLVING AN ETHICAL DILEMMA
Reference
Acs.org.au. (2018). ACS - The Professional Association for Australia's ICT sector. [online]
Available at: https://www.acs.org.au/ [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].
Butler, D. A., and Rodrick, S. 2015. Australian media law. Thomson Reuters (Professional)
Australia Limited.
Roberts, L.D., 2015. Ethical issues in conducting qualitative research in online
communities. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(3), pp.314-325.
Shapiro, J. P. and Stefkovich, J. A. 2016. Ethical leadership and decision making: Applying
theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.