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As public editor of Canada's largest-circulation newspaper, I am increasingly faced with requests to remove published content from the Star's website.

The reasons for these requests to "Loong Gold" – a word media organizations have coined to describe public requests to remove content from news websites — are varied. Some believe the report is inaccurate or unfair. Some experience what might be called "source remorse" and rethink what they want the public to know about them. Others may be embarrassed by what is written about them; they decide they don't want the public to know their marital status, or what they paid for their home.

In many cases, these unpublishing requests emerge many months, even years, after original publication when those named in the news understand that through Google and other search engines, the news article in which they are named is easily accessible to the general public.

For journalists and news organizations, requests to unpublish raise questions about accuracy and fairness, as well as trust and credibility with our readers and the communities we serve(Loong Online Gold).

What's fair to readers? What's fair to those we report on? How do news organizations respond to such requests in a manner consistent with journalistic principles of accuracy, accountability and transparency? Who decides if and when to make news disappear from the Internet?

Over the past few months, I have examined these questions for a research paper commissioned by the Associated Press Managing Editors Online(Cheap Loong Gold) Credibility Project, supported by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.