JOURNALISM- CODE OF ETHICS!

Journalism ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and of good practice as applied to specific challenges and hurdles faced by journalist. Media ethics is widely known for journalists as their professional “Code of ethics”. The basic codes are drafted by professional journalism associations and individual print, broadcast and online news organisations. Whilst other various existing  codes have differences which share common elements such as including the principles of- truthfulness, objectivity, accuracy, impartiality, public accountability and fairness. 

Limitation of harm-This often involves the withholding of certain details example can be the names of minor children, crime victims’ names or even information not materially related to particular news reports release of which might harm someone’s reputation!

Discriminatory references-In news it’s based on:  race, religion, sexual orientation ,lastly physical or mental disabilities.

 

Accuracy and standards for factual reporting-Reporters are required to be as accurate as possible and seek reliable sources.

 

Slander and libel considerations- People have privacy rights that must be balanced and fair against the public interest in reporting information about them. Defamation is giving incorrect information/ lying. There are two types of defamation which is slander (spoken) and libel (written).

Ethical standards-

•         Correctly spoken or written language
•          Clarity
•          Brevity 

 
Self-regulation- Many news organisation have a role is to keep news organizations honest, truthful and accountable to the public.

Ethics and standards in practice-

  As with other ethical codes, there is concern that the standards of journalism are being ignored. One of the main controversial issues raised in the modern reporting is the media being bias, especially on the political issues raised, as well as cultural issues.

 

Standards and reputation- The professionalism, reliability and public accountability of a news organisation are three of its most valuable assets.

Relationship with freedom of the press-The countries that don’t have the freedom of the press, the majority of the people who report news may not follow the standards of journalism that I described.

 

Variations, violations, and controversies-

 There are lots of many points of journalistic procedure that foster the disagreements in the principle and variation in practice among “mainstream” journalist in the free press. Laws that concern slander and libel vary from country to country, and local journalistic standards may fit in.

 

Taste, decency and acceptability- People have different views and reactions to depictions of violence, nudity, coarse language, or to other laws such as consumption of alcohol, homosexuality, and illegal drug use. Scatological images, etc.

 

Campaigning in the media- A wide number of print publications take advantage of their wide readership and print persuasive pieces in the form of unsigned editorials and that represent the official position of the organisation.

 

Investigative methods-Is referred to a large information-gathering exercise,that looks for facts that are not easy to obtain by simple requests and searches, suppressed or distorted.