Ethics for Journalists

Abstract

A long time ago, when I was a journalist, an editor told me that I didn’t need to know about ethics: that was his responsibility. His view was that he made all the hard decisions and my job was to carry them out, unquestioningly. Oh, how things have changed. Ethics are everyone’s responsibility in journalism— from the trainee or work experience intern to the managing editor or proprietor— no one should shirk that obligation. After all, journalism is a collaborative process and with that comes collective responsibility for the actions taken in the name of the news outlet. Nowadays, with fewer staff in the newsroom, increasing numbers of freelance media workers and greater autonomy being placed on younger staff at earlier stages in their careers, ethics are everyone’s concern. Of course, editors still play a vital role in ethical decision- making and in setting the moral compass of their news organisation, but this now filters down— and up— to others too. I also believe he was wrong. Every decent human being has their own personal code of ethics, and sometimes, more often than not, that coincides with their professional norms and practice. They bring their value systems to the job, and they use those to interpret the standards of behaviour expected of their calling. So conceivably, ethical imperatives are inherent in every decision a journalist makes about their work. Academic and former journalist, Tony Harcup, elaborates with this insight