Tutorial #9

Ethics are the unspoken rules that define our actions.

Ethics in journalism gets a little bit more complicated than that.

The major issue with ethics in journalism is the conflict between the part that is a citizen, and the part that is a journalist. Both have a duty to attend to. As a citizen, you have a duty to care for others and uphold justice where possible, to decrease pain and be all that is humane. As a journalist, your duty is to get the story, nothing else. No interfering. No changing the course of events. Just watching, recording, taking notes and in some cases asking questions.

There are principles concerned in how a journalist goes about things which are much more loosely defined than a member of the public, although there is no right involved. For example, if a person passes away, a journalist might approach the family to get or complete a story. The family would be very upset, of course, but the journalist would need a story. The family does have the right to turn them away, but the journalist has more right than ordinary citizens to pry, however unethical some may see it to be.

One example of questionable ethics was when a priest set himself on fire and two journalists were sent to record the incident. After a few moments, it could be seen that no help was coming and one of the men set to putting the fire out. The reason why ethics are questioned in this instance was because the two men were there to watch this man burn alive, not to stop it from happening or cease his suffering like any normal person would try to do. One did help after a while, but the fact that they waited is what is questioned.

Pain and suffering is at the centre of conversations about ethics. It seems and unspoken rule to try our best not to cause such suffering or allow it to happen because of our empathy and instincts, such as the will to not only survive but thrive in our existence. This is where journalists sometimes fail, and most of the time it is because it's their job.

“All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings.”   ― Denis Diderot