Ethics in journalism: Where's the line?

Everyday journalists battle with the pressures of being moral and ethical while also doing their job to their upmost ability. It seems there are no strict boundaries or rules when it comes to ethical practice. Sure there’s the AJA Code of Ethics, but this is just a guideline. How do journalists know when they’ve stepped over the line? Are there specific situations which are unethical or is how the journalists acts which determines if they are being unethical? 

It’s safe to say that ethics in journalism is a murky grey area.

There are so many questions and issues with ethics in journalism that we could be here all day discussing them. What I would like to do however, is discuss an example where a journalist has clearly breached the line of ethical behaviour relating to conflicts of interest.

Reporter for The Age, Carolyn Webb, reported a story about an alleged rape by former Victorian MP Theo Theophanous in 2008. “The long article contained few details of the alleged rape. But it did contain many emotional attacks on Mr Theophanous by a woman who claimed to have been his victim ten years earlier” (ABC, 2010, online). In 2009, Mr Theophanous was formally charged with rape, but the case was dismissed because the magistrate deemed ‘the victim’ an entirely unreliable source. The accusation was completely false.

Instead of suing for defamation, Mr Theophanous then took the matter up with the Australian Press Council. Investigation into the accusations found that Ms Webb had a clear conflict of interest because she and ‘the victim’ were friends. This was not disclosed by Ms Webb. It also found that Ms Webb did not verify facts with two sources that could supposedly support her story, in fact, they outright contradicted her claim (ABC, 2010). 

This example demonstrates where the ethical line has been blurred. Ms Webb’s failure to be accurate and honest inevitably ruined a man’s career, not to mention his reputation and that of The Age. Conley and Lamble (2006, p. 402) state that “If a conflict of interest is seen to exist, and this perception is accompanied by bias in how a newspaper handles particular stories, the publication suffers a double blow to its reputation for even-handedness.”

The full video can be viewed at: http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2971299.htm

Ethics it seems is not something that can be formally placed into one particular box. Its boundaries change according to different situations and also the individual journalist’s moral compass. It is vital that we as future journalists use our head and our morals to judge situations and go with our gut instinct. As the picture says, we must strive for integrity, commitment and truth in reporting. 

Only by striving for these values will we truly be able to do our job with the upmost ethical standards. While it can’t be guaranteed we will never find ourselves in such situations, we must take initiative ourselves to ensure we avoid them at all costs.

Sources:

ABC. (2010, August 2). Accusations and Reputations. Media Watch. Retrieved September 24, 2010, from http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2971299.htm 

Conley, D. & Lamble, S. (2006). Chapter 16. Ethical journalism: is it an oxymoron? The Daily Miracle: An Introduction to Journalism (pp. 373-407). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.