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Ethical Principles in Journalism

The document discusses several core ethical principles of journalism: truth, objectivity, fairness, and accuracy. Truth involves avoiding deception and verifying facts based on evidence, while promoting understanding. Objectivity means an absence of bias by presenting multiple sides equally. Fairness gives all parties a fair hearing and considers all angles. Accuracy ensures information is truthful, correct and precise. These principles guide ethical journalism practice worldwide.

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546 views22 pages

Ethical Principles in Journalism

The document discusses several core ethical principles of journalism: truth, objectivity, fairness, and accuracy. Truth involves avoiding deception and verifying facts based on evidence, while promoting understanding. Objectivity means an absence of bias by presenting multiple sides equally. Fairness gives all parties a fair hearing and considers all angles. Accuracy ensures information is truthful, correct and precise. These principles guide ethical journalism practice worldwide.

Uploaded by

faith essien
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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ETHICAL

PRINCIPLES IN
JOURNALISM
INTRODUCTION
The ethical principles in journalism are the
fundamental codes that guide journalism
practice the world over.

They are the pillars on which the


profession of journalism is built; without
their application to the news gathering and
production process, the profession will lose
its integrity.
INTRODUCTION
There are numerous ethical principles but
the following are some of the core
universally acknowledged ethical
principles of media practice:
1. Truth
2. Objectivity
3. Fairness
4. Accuracy
TRUTH
Truth is fact, the reality told as it is. It is
the avoidance of deception, dishonesty
and lying in any or every form.
The commitment to truth is perhaps the
most ancient and revered ethical
principle of human civilization
TRUTH
Day (2006) discusses the standards of
journalistic truth. He presents the
following standards for ensuring truth.
They are:
The reporting of a story must be
accurate. The facts must be verified;
that is, they should be based on solid
evidence. If there is some doubt or
dispute about the facts, it should be
revealed to the audience.
TRUTH
The story should promote
understanding. The goal should be to
provide an account that is essentially
complete.
A story should contain as much relevant
information as is available and essential
to afford the average reader or reviewer
at least an understanding of the facts and
the context of the facts
TRUTH
The article must be fair and balanced.
These two concepts entails the avoidance
of any discernible bias.
In addition to avoiding bias, fairness and
balance require that journalist accord
recognition to those views that enhance
the understanding of the issue.
Every effort should be made to represent
them fairly and in proportion to their
significance to the issue.
TRUTH
Use of deception in news gathering and
reporting. Some moralists argue that it is
wrong to use deception in news gathering
and reporting but some media
practitioners have argued that they may
sometimes have to use deception to
unravel a greater truth for the benefits of
the society.
TRUTH
According to Kovach and Rosenstiel (2001),
a three-step test should be applied for
employing deceptive news-gathering
techniques. They are:
1. The information must be sufficiently
vital to the public interest to justify
deception.
2. Journalists should not engage in
masquerade unless there is no other way
to get the story.
TRUTH
3. Journalists should reveal to their
audience whenever they mislead sources
to get information, and explain their
reasons for doing so, including why the
story justifies the deception and why this
was the only way to get the facts.
TRUTH
Meanwhile, there are some truths that the
media is not expected to publish. Un-
publishable truths are truths that are not in
the interest of the public or truths that can
compromise national security and integrity.
An example of un-publishable truth
according to Okoye (2008) is truth that
undermines national security or national
cohesion or truth that may be considered
blasphemous by any religious group.
OBJECTIVITY
Objectivity means the absence of
subjectivity, bias, prejudice or
partisanship. Media audiences expect
utmost objectivity while some media
analysts have asserted that absolute
objectivity is not possible.
The journalist can and should present
equally two sides of an argument.
OBJECTIVITY
A journalist should not allow his or her
feelings and beliefs intrude into the
article.
Individuals see events through their
viewpoints like the lens of a camera. And
their background, orientation, religion,
race, nationality, philosophies and
personality shape these viewpoints.
OBJECTIVITY
So, even when they try to objectively
gather information and report such
information as accurately as possible,
their viewpoints are (indirectly)
subjectively influencing the news
gathering and news reporting process
OBJECTIVITY
It has been argued that there cannot be
complete objectivity but media
practitioners must strive to be as
objective as possible.
Some factors have been identified as
likely impediments to objectivity.
According to Okoye (2008), “Objectivity
can be hindered by any of the following
factors:
OBJECTIVITY
(i) Limited space
(ii) Laziness on the part of the reporter
(iii) Lack of openness on the part of one
party to a controversy
(iv) Conflict of interest
(v) Advertiser pressure
(vi) Government pressure
FAIRNESS
Fairness presupposes that all parties to a
story or event are given equal and fair
hearing (through adequate reporting),
information about all the angles to a
story is reported and all the sides to an
argument or controversy are presented.

The Washington Post’s Code of Ethics as


cited in Okoye (2008) include:
FAIRNESS
i. No story is fair it if omits facts of
major importance or significance.
Fairness includes completeness.
ii. No story is fair if it includes essentially
irrelevant information at the expense
of significant facts. Fairness includes
relevance.
FAIRNESS
iii No story is fair if it consciously or
unconsciously misleads or even
deceives the reader. Fairness includes
honesty-leveling with the reader.
iv. No story is fair if reporters hide their
biases or emotions behind such subtly
pejorative words as “refused”,
“despite”, “quietly”, “admit”, and
“massive.” Fairness requires
straightforwardness.
ACCURACY
Accuracy is the truthfulness,
correctness, exactness or precision in
the information that media
practitioners provide for their
audience.

Media audiences must be able to trust


whatever information they are getting
from the media
ACCURACY
Crediting information to sources is one
way of ensuring accuracy.

Getting exact figures in cases that require


statistics like population reportage,
accidents and similar event is important.

If the exact figure is unknown,


approximations can be made using the
lowest possible figure
ACCURACY
Care should also be taken to ensure that
names, addresses, positions, locations,
age and other related information are
accurate and correctly spelt.

It is better to drop a story when in doubt


than to publish and later issue a
retraction or apology.

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