Codes of Ethics

In addition to making decisions about what to report and write and how to present stories, journalists must consider whether their behaviour is ethical as they perform their professional duties.

Many newspapers have devised codes of ethics that govern the behaviour of the employees. These include policies about accepting gifts or free-lance assignments, as well as guidelines about conflict of interests. Staff members who violate these policies at newspapers can be fired, and many have been. In some cases reporters have been fired for entering into business relationships with a source or for using for personal gain information they get from sources. Journalism societies also have basic codes of ethics to guide members.

One industry standard that all journalists are expected to comply with is a prohibition against plagiarism – passing off the materials of another source as your own without giving any credit to the original source. If you are copying information from another publication, you must attribute the source.

Other principles to all the codes include adhering to accuracy, telling the truth, minimizing harm, and avoiding conflicts of interest.

Most ethics codes deal with the behaviour of journalists and the publication if materials in printed or broadcast form. But with the increasing use of online technology, journalists are facing new dilemmas. Is it Ok to print someone’s comments you read from a news group even though these comments were not specifically meant for publication? Can you publish information from a source’s electronic correspondence or from a news group without his or her knowledge? When a person sends you an e-mail message, chances are she or he doesn’t expect to find the message printed in your newspaper or magazine.

Many legal and copyright issues involving electronic posting remain untested, although some online ethics codes are being devised. Until journalists can agree about the proper way of handling online correspondence, let good journalistic practice be your guide. If you are planning to quote someone by name, ask the person for permission to use the correspondence unless the information is public. Ask yourself how you would feel if you were the source. Methods of delivering the news may change, but you can apply good ethical reasoning to any medium.

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