ONA Issues

The ultimate defense of press freedom lies in our daily work.

Many journalists wonder with considerable weariness what it is going to be like for us during the next four—perhaps eight—years. Will we be incessantly harassed and vilified? Will the new administration seize on opportunities to try intimidating us? Will we face obstruction at every turn?

If so, what do we do?

The answer, I believe, is pretty simple. Just do our job. Do it as it’s supposed to be done.

For Vanity Fair, Jenner and her family, it marks the result of months of negotiations and work, as well as beefed up security to keep the story from leaking. The magazine hired security for the shoot and forced people to give up their cell phones to prevent anything from leaking. A spokesperson for VF told Mashable that the magazine had been in talks with Caitlyn Jenner since January and did not give her any compensation for the exclusive.

The magazine was concerned about leaks and took security measures “every step of the way,” including on the photo shoot, in the VF editorial office and at the printing plant for the upcoming issue. The story and pictures were done on a single computer that was never connected to the Internet, with the assets put on a thumb drive every night and then deleted from the computer. The story was even hand-delivered to the printer.