Blog Assignment Number 4 - Kyle

Ahhhhhh, journalistic freedom. This can be a very touchy subject to some, but here goes my best attempt of summarizing my thoughts into a useful, concise, and well written article to educate the less informed.

In my opinion, journalists should have certain freedoms that others don't have, but they should be controlled and logical. They should have freedom to write what they want because its the editors job to decide what goes in a newspaper. If a journalist writes lies and the editor lets it in, it's his paper/other news source, thats going to look bad for his company. These freedoms shouldn't be unlimited, however. There are cases where journalists go extreme in violating privacy which is uncalled for. In summary, they have certain freedoms like freedom of speech but they have to keep it under control or they're looking for trouble.

In my opinion, the main responsibility of a journalist concerning freedom is follwing the Canadian Association of Journalists Statement of Principles. If they follow each of these rules carefully, they can be absolutely sure that they aren't abusing their freedom. Most journalists are sneaky, however, and abuse their freedoms in order to make a good story. There isn't really punishment for this, so it's going to continue.

Journalistic freedoms are constantly being violated. Journalists are always sticking cameras in the faces of people and asking them personal questions they may not want to answer. These people feel like they have no choice but to go along with it, which is unfair. I can't think of any specific examples of this, but I remember seeing it happening all the time.

In Canada, freedom of the press is very powerful. Journalists can print practically anything without getting in trouble. However, most don't tell lies because they want to write stuff that viewers want to hear about. They make their stories as interesting as they can without lying becuase they don't want a bad reputation, and their editor controls what goes in and what has to stay out. For the most part freedom of the press isn't a big issue because journalists follow it pretty well.

Well, theres most of my knowledge on the facts of journalistic freedoms. I hope you use this information for educational purposes only and to expand your overall knowledge.