- "Journalistic ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and good practice applicable to journalists."
Learning about the ethical principles that govern the practice of journalism.
Objectivity: This refers to the need for journalists to present news in a neutral, unbiased manner, without taking any political or ideological stances.
Accuracy: Journalists must ensure that the information they report is factually correct, and that they vet their sources and cross-check their facts before publication.
Privacy: Journalists must respect the private lives of individuals and not report on anything that could be seen as an invasion of privacy, unless it is in the public interest.
Conflict of interest: Journalists must avoid situations, personal interests, or financial ties that could compromise their journalistic integrity or the public's trust in the media.
Plagiarism: Journalists must avoid copying content or passing off someone else's work as their own, as it compromises the credibility of the publication and the profession.
Online harassment: Journalists must be mindful of the impact that their work can have on individuals, and must avoid any comments, tweets, or posts that could be seen as harassment, bullying, or discriminatory.
Social media policy: Journalists must develop and adhere to a comprehensive social media policy that outlines ethical guidelines, best practices, and the role of social media in the newsroom.
Transparency: Journalists must be transparent with their readers about their methods, sources, and affiliations, and should be open to feedback and criticism.
Digital security: Journalists must take steps to protect their sources and prevent cyber-attacks, data breaches, and other security threats.
Ethics codes: Journalists must follow the code of conduct set forth by their professional organizations, and work to uphold the highest standards of ethical journalism.
Objectivity: This ethics encourages journalists to remain neutral in their reporting and avoid personal opinions and biases.
Accuracy: This refers to the need for journalists to ensure that their reports are well-researched and the facts are correct.
Fairness: This ethics requires journalists to provide equal opportunities for all sides to provide their version of a story.
Confidentiality: This ethics encourages journalists to protect their sources by keeping their identity private when reporting on sensitive stories.
Integrity: This ethics requires journalists to exhibit honesty and accountability in their reporting.
Transparency: This ethics is about being open to the public about sources of information and how stories are put together.
Independence: This requires journalists to seek the truth and report it without fear or favor.
Diversity: This ethics requires media organizations to promote diversity of views in their content.
Social Responsibility: This ethics emphasizes that media should simultaneously serve the public interest and make a profit, doing the least amount of harm possible to both individuals and society as a whole.
Constructive Journalism: A style of journalism that puts emphasis on reporting solutions, inspirations, and positive stories in addition to the more common critical and problem-focused coverage.
Civic Journalism: Civic journalism is focused on engaging the public in journalistic practice to explore, represent, and improve the quality of public life.
Sensationalism: This is the opposite of responsible or constructive journalism, where media outlets prioritize shock value and generate emotion in order to gain more views, clicks, and shares.
Gatekeeping: A series of decisions made by news organizations and journalists on what content, news, or opinion gets reported, promoted or discarded.
Cultural Hegemony: Media can affect a society's understanding of itself and its values, ideas, and beliefs. Therefore, media reporting has the potential of shaping those values and beliefs over time, thus making it an ethical concern.
Community Journalism: Community Journalism emphasizes coverage of a community and its residents, stories that are not covered by larger media outlets.
Public Journalism: Public Journalism suggests that journalists should involve citizens in the process of gathering and reporting the news.
Online Content Ethics: Many ethics and standards of journalism apply to online content, such as responsible reporting while recognizing privacy concerns, avoiding social media bans or account suspensions, or checking sources before sharing content.
Plagiarism: Is the act of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
Conflict of Interest: An ethical issue where a journalist could potentially benefit financially, personally, or professionally from their reporting.
Misinformation: With an endless influx of unverified and misleading information, journalists' responsibility now extends beyond providing accurate, important reporting to also countering the spread of misinformation or ‘fake news' as it is often referred to.
- "There are around 400 codes covering journalistic work around the world."
- "Most share common elements including the principles of truthfulness, accuracy and fact-based communications, independence, objectivity, impartiality, fairness, respect for others and public accountability."
- "Like many broader ethical systems, the ethics of journalism include the principle of 'limitation of harm'."
- "such as the names of minor children, crime victims' names, or information not materially related to the news report where the release of such information might, for example, harm someone's reputation or put them at undue risk."
- "There has also been discussion and debate within the journalism community regarding appropriate reporting of suicide and mental health, particularly with regard to verbiage."
- "some European codes, also include a concern with discriminatory references in news based on race, religion, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities."
- "The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe approved (in 1993) Resolution 1003 on the Ethics of Journalism."
- "Resolution 1003 recommends that journalists respect the presumption of innocence, in particular in cases that are still sub judice."
- "This subset of media ethics is known as journalism's professional 'code of ethics' and the 'canons of journalism'."
- "The basic codes and canons commonly appear in statements by professional journalism associations and individual print, broadcast, and online news organizations."
- "most share common elements including the principles of truthfulness, accuracy and fact-based communications, independence, objectivity, impartiality, fairness, respect for others and public accountability, as these apply to the gathering, editing and dissemination of newsworthy information to the public."
- "This may involve enhanced respect for vulnerable groups and the withholding of certain details from reports."
- "the names of minor children, crime victims' names, or information not materially related to the news report where the release of such information might, for example, harm someone's reputation or put them at undue risk."
- "appropriate reporting of suicide and mental health, particularly with regard to verbiage."
- "...independence, objectivity, impartiality, fairness, respect for others and public accountability."
- "discriminatory references in news based on race, religion, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities."
- "around 400 codes covering journalistic work around the world."
- "Resolution 1003 on the Ethics of Journalism...recommends that journalists respect the presumption of innocence."
- "journalism's professional 'code of ethics' and the 'canons of journalism'."