Journalistic ethics
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The media have established codes of ethics for journalists to follow to maintain themselves as respectable and trustworthy institutions in the eyes of the public. However, unlike the medical and legal professions, journalists have not formed a policing body to enforce their codes; conformance must stem from the individual's conscience, and be debated by related agencies such as critical journals, press councils, individual publications and the ombudsman system.
Codes of ethics have been drawn up by journalism organizations, groups of writers in specialties, and newspapers. Two such codes are the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi; and the Associated Press Managing Editors Code of Ethics.
Reporters, writers and editors face ethical problems regardless of whether codes exist. Such questions arise because journalists must serve the public's right to know while maintaining the privacy of people involved in the news. They must preserve the trust of sources while presenting accurate accounts to their audience. And they cannot allow personal interests?in business or politics, for example?to cloud their unbiased presentation of an issue.
One issue that journalists deal with is whether to accept press trips or other gifts from a source and risk losing their objectivity. Another ethical question for the media is raised by reporters who pose as people in other professions to obtain information (in expos? stories, for example). Sometimes a newsperson is faced with a conflict of interest when a personal or business interest clashes with his professional obligation to serve the public. (This issue is detailed in the entry "Conflict of interest.") And although fabrication of quotes and facts along with plagiarism have not yet been abolished from the profession, they are two practices considered absolutely unethical by virtually all journalists.
A reporter's taking part in a story on which he reports?such as trying to negotiate with a terrorist in a hostage situation?presents another kind of ethical dilemma. In addition, interfering in a person's private life (i.e., the subject of a story) can be unethical when the private facts reported have no bearing on the story in question, or when publishing certain facts does more harm to the subject than it benefits the public.
The media also have the obligation to conform to their local community's norms regarding obscene or shocking words and graphic descriptions of crime or accidents. Being fair is another duty: The reporter should present all sides of a controversy and viewpoints of opposing sides when one person is accused by another.
Revealing the name of a source when anonymity has been requested can lose the reporter future access to that source as well as violate a trust; on the other hand, some newspeople believe that, to preclude instances of fabrication, reporters should be required to reveal sources to their editors.
Often, names of juvenile criminal suspects are withheld from the public out of concern for the future of the accused. Names of victims of some types of crime, especially rape, are also withheld from publication or broadcast.
The freelance writer must confront ethical situations that are peculiar to his field. For example, he must decide whether to inform interviewees that he is writing on speculation. Will the articles being done for one magazine help that magazine in its competition with another magazine for which the freelancer is also doing work? The same kind of conflict can arise in book publishing. Publishers' contracts, in fact, specify that authors cannot write books for other publishers that would substantially compete with the works being contracted for. And when holding another job, he faces the problem of whether his freelance work interferes with his full-time work.
See Also:
Conflict of interest
Ombudsman, newspaper
Plagiarism
Press trip |
