Ethics in Journalism

Ananya Mukharya[2020IPM023],Vinaayak Solanki[2020IPM147],

LSE 1B
6th March, 2021
When we speak of ethics in journalism, we speak of a specific set of morals and values that
guide journalists. This topic is important because a journalist has a certain sense of responsibility
to ensure that factual, truthful and objective information reaches society. Most journalistic ethics
have been formed over the same principles, such as - Journalists must be honest, must not take
any political side, be impartial with their information, and be accountable for the information
they provide. The relevance of this in today's day and age is essential because the information is
abundant in the internet era. Not all of it is factual. One must know that their data is reliable and
authentic. Ethical standards need to be maintained because, as a profession, journalism depends
on them to maintain the credibility of the information they put out there. Especially in today's
day and age, journalism has become a fast-paced, more pressured and vastly more complex
profession. Thus it is crucial to ensure that while the information is firstly to be factual but also
not to take sides in any situation.

In today's era, where even a single article or news is capable of causing destruction at a massive
level, media and journalists must keep the sanctity of the news intact. In today's times where
there is a cut-throat competition between media houses, which thrive by crushing each other, and
the best way to achieve popularity is by increasing their TRP and in order to do this, they tend to
spread false news or tamper with the original data. Media nowadays has the power to make or
break the life of an individual or even a large set of the society, and with such huge powers, it
should be the ethical obligation of journalists to present us with nothing but truth and facts.
There have been several cases wherein, due to false news, the suspects were already assumed to
be guilty by the citizens even before the case was fought. For instance, there was a famous case
in which a teacher allegedly assaulted a student and the media glorified this news to such an
extent that the teacher had to commit suicide even though later on it was found that he was not
guilty. On 1st March 2020, there was a piece of false news which was spread about riots in West
Delhi, and this news was able to strike fears in the hearts of the residents to such an extent that
all the colonies, restaurants, coaching centres, shops, malls, etc. had to be closed. Journalists
nowadays hold power to alter the course of politics, economy, and basically, the whole world.
While using this power to provide knowledge, keeping people updated about their surroundings,
etc. will definitely be a boon but using this power to create chaos and spread hatred will
definitely bring doom upon us and as the citizens of this country, it's our duty to be aware of
what is wrong and what is not and not fall into such traps and keep a check over their actions.

Nevertheless, truthfulness will go in vain if you don't have the freedom to speak it. Independence
is seen as the cornerstone of integrity in journalism. Admittedly, journalists must act
independently, as per their logic and proclaim that their interests will not be subjected to the
attempts of advertisers and interest groups, be it cultural or political, to sway the news. Even
though this facet of journalism has been repulsed on many occasions, private media is still reliant
on advertising support. This also threatens the sanctity of news and data published because the
government gets the upper hand on advertisers to use them as a political tool. There have been
many instances in which, due to misleading coverage, the real story didn't even hit the general
populace. One of the recent examples of this is the "2021 Uttarakhand flood." In 2019, a petition
was filed in the Uttarakhand High court by a villager from Reni, Chamoli. The accusation was
that the Ganga Power Project was using environmentally sound methods, according to him. The
court issued notices to both the centre and states asking for a response within three weeks, but
the petition went unnoticed and was subsequently dismissed. On 7th February, a disastrous flood
swept through the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand as an act of government's negligence. If only
the matter had been appropriately dealt with back in 2019, the disaster would have been
prevented. And reports of the same were effectively censored by the Government of India in
order to escape public charges. People rely heavily on media houses, considering it as a potent
source of information, and such discrepancies in it due to the dominance by powerful brats lead
to mistrust and rise of opposition. And so it is essential as part of the citizens of India to
scrutinize the hypocrisy and misappropriation of the press coverage of obvious matters.
1

To broach the subject of impartiality, we will split it into two; that is, one that concerns our
fundamental understanding of what journalistic impartiality is. The other will deal in helping us
understand the implications and consequences in the absence of journalistic objectivity.
Journalistic impartiality, put plainly, requires the journalist to be on neither side of an argument.
It necessitates that they keep their personal views separate from their writing and that the reader
will not discern the writer's opinions from their work. Understandably, impartiality can often be
a dynamic and complex notion to gauge; however, three key concepts to keep in mind are
truthfulness, neutrality, and detachment. Professor Michael Schudson, a journalism professor at
Columbia University, stated that "the belief in objectivity is a faith in 'facts,' a distrust in 'values,'
and a commitment to their segregation." Therefore, in their quest for journalistic impartiality/
objectivity, the journalist must aim to provide only the facts in their writing, nothing more. In
doing so, the journalist creates a neutral environment in which the reader can educate
themselves, free of bias, and by extension, form their own opinions on the topic at hand.
However, in the absence of journalistic impartiality, that is, when the journalist riddles their
work full of bias and opinions amongst the factual content, the readers are more likely to
interpret the factual information within the biases given by the writer. Such biased journalism
can often be misleading/harmful. An example of this is, as detailed by the Gainesville Times,
when back in May 2018, many progressive journalists, and even Obama speechwriter Jon
Favreau, were critical of the Trump administration's treatment of unaccompanied children at the
U.S border, referring to a picture of children sleeping in an area enclosed by a chain-link fence
alongside an article from AZCentral.com called "First glimpse of immigrant children at holding
facility". Whereas in reality, both the article and the photo were from 2014, during Obama's
presidency.2

1 https://thewire.in/environment/uttarakhand-rishi-ganga-power-project-flood
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalistic_objectivity#:~:text=Neutrality%20suggests%20that%20stories
%20be,emotional%20approach%20of%20the%20journalist.
https://www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/blog/2018/08/14/media-impartiality-1/
The 21st century is an era dominated by competition. There are around 11 popular National
Media Houses, and they want to be the best at what they do. Due to this competition, the Media
Houses focus on presenting the news to the viewers faster and in a more captivating tone than the
others. Unfortunately, this competitive aspect of journalism has taken away the human element
of it. Media trials, which declare the accused as a criminal even before legal trials begin, are a
common thing. Even rape victims aren't left alone. The Deputy Commissioner of Police stated
that journalists keep on requesting the details of the survivor and their family members
unofficially since the police are barred by law to disclose any such information. If they somehow
get hands-on such information, they pester the victim and her family for an interview3. Advocate
Vrinda Grover stated that the journalists try to reach her and request interviews with her clients.4
One of the more recent examples of inhuman reporting is the Death of the Bollywood Actor,
Sushant Singh Rajput. Both the World Health Organization, as well as the Press Council of
India, have issued guidelines for reporting on suicide, which include avoiding language that
sensationalized suicides, refraining from speculations, avoiding the phrase "Committed Suicide",
refraining from using photographs and avoiding descriptions of the method used, among others5.
However, all these guidelines, which were made to ensure humane portrayal of news, was
thrown out the window by most media houses with headlines such as "Arey! Apni hi film dekh
lete, Sushant!” (You should have watched your own movie, Sushant!)6 All the reports gave a
detailed description of the method of suicide. Some media houses continuously broadcasted
images of the dead body7, which violates the Press Council of India's guidelines and is unethical
on the grounds of humanity. On a positive note, some print media houses urged the people to
reach out to those in need and provided helpline numbers along with the news articles.

Accountability is one of the foremost, frequently cited ethical standards in Journalism. It's a
phrase that may be understood as a belief where mass media is anticipated to account within the
public interest. They're expected to behave in ways that contribute to the general public good.

https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/opinion/letter-editor/opinion-here-are-plenty-examples-media-bias/

3https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/media-walks-a-fine-line-while-reporting-on-crimes-like-rape-
sexual-assault/story-bTGRYSNH8fIhdwMFdGEejI.html

4https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/media-walks-a-fine-line-while-reporting-on-crimes-like-rape-
sexual-assault/story-bTGRYSNH8fIhdwMFdGEejI.html

5 https://presscouncil.nic.in/WriteReadData/Pdf/NORMSTWOZEROONEININE.pdf

6 http://thepatriot.in/2020/06/19/suicide-as-spectacle/

7https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/06/16/media-most-foul-how-sushant-singh-rajputs-suicide-was-
turned-into-a-spectacle
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) has developed some benchmarks of accountability
for professional journalists that include encouraging the general public to specify its grievances
against the journalism, admitting mistakes and correcting them promptly, exposing unethical
practices of journalists and therefore the print media, and abiding by the identical high standards
to which they hold others. Ethics may be a branch of philosophy that favours social obligation. In
the media, ethics helps to keep up professionalism and strengthen the standard of ethical choices
one needs to make in one’s day-to-day life. Accountability is one of the essential ethical
standards that are discussed frequently. In society, one gets genuine respect only if one is dutiful
of oneself. This respect is the power they'll carry. With the help of this, he can maintain checks
and balances against any wrongdoers. Also, while maintaining the duty to the audience, a
journalist mustn't discriminate against the readers at any cost. Race, religion, culture, political
ideology, language, age are often factors that may separate one person from another. A
journalist, while collecting and disseminating news, must watch out to not discriminate against
the readers. A journalist must understand the sensitivity and thus should be in favour of the
protection of the source. Media accountability is a fundamental ethical framework that increases
professionalism in media. By following the code of ethics, one can perform responsibly in their
profession similarly to maintain their professional standard while fulfilling duty towards society,
self, and audience. The moral standards vary from place to position, but all aim to form a
reputable and accountable media/journalism practice. As mass media could be a sensitive
platform, one must command the news collected and disseminated, thus, maintaining
professionalism.

Journalists should use their powers to make this earth a better place for all of us rather than
thinking about their own benefits. They can alter the course of anything with their words; they
can make us all more aware of everything; they can tell us what is wrong and what is right and
also help us in doing the right thing. The powers of these journalists and media are beyond what
we, the general public, can comprehend. Their contributions and their effects are an
indispensable part of our lives, and if we tend to overlook them, then we ourselves are walking
towards destruction.