Just like in any profession journalists have a set of ethical rules that they need to follow. Being ethical is more prominent in journalism than most professions because that is how you are looked at as a writer. According to the Ethical Journalism Network there are five main ethical rules that journalists need to follow. In this blog I will talk about three of them that are more important than others.
1. Truth and Accuracy:
Journalists are writing to the public. They need to be truthful and get all the facts right. How will readers or news stations trust you as a writer if you are not giving out truthful information and getting your facts wrong? This is the main rule in all of journalism. When writing an article always source check and fact check what you are writing before you submit to make sure all of what you are writing is correct.
2. Independence:
For most of the time journalists should not be biased towards one side or another, especially when writing for politics. This rule can be a little flexible because if you are a beat writer for a sports team you are writing to a particular fan base not the whole country.
3. Humanity:
Yes journalists must report news no matter how bad it is. But a journalists job is not to ruin someones career. As journalists we report the facts and the story but not to cause harm to the person as well.
These rules of ethics correspond to my one ethical rules. I try to be as truthful and as accurate as possible when I am writing something for school or even just telling a story to a friend. I want to make sure that I have the story correct. It is very tough for anyone to not be biased to one side or the other but I try to do y best to look at something from both sides of the argument or whatever it is to get a better view of the situation. Spreading gossip is just like being inhumane. I believe that trying to ruin someones reputation is very disrespectful so I try to not spread any gossip.
Beyond the field of journalism most people would be able to guess what these ethical rules.
By not following these rules that affects you professionally because it will be harder to find a job if you are known for example for not telling the truth in your articles. That is why it is important to follow these ethical rules as a journalist.
http://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/who-we-are/5-principles-of-journalism
by Justin Frommer
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