Ethics should be important to journalists in order to have accurate, reliable, and fair news available to people. Journalists who don't follow ethics will make their companies look bad and will probably end up getting fired. When journalists report on a story they need to follow some rules of conduct. (These can be viewed here http://www.caj.ca/?p=155 ). They need to be fair, honest, respect privacy, independent, and accurate, among others.
A journalist shouldn't necessarily tell everything he/she knows. They have to consider the statement of principles and ethics guidelines. If they have really important information, but it violates the principal of privacy, it shouldn't be used. I think a journalist should be completely open to the subject about the story being reported. There are limits as to what should be reported. Things violating privacy shouldn't be reported or extreme violence. You can always leave out details and still get your point across.
If the reporter and the subject are to have any kind of relationship, it should be strictly professional and not friends. This way you know there aren't secret things happening between them and you're for sure getting the whole truth. There won't be bribes or other things that violate journalistic ethics. These are my thoughts on journalistic ethics.
I agree with your opinion of journalistic ethics because the stories should be accurate while still following the statement of principles.
ReplyDelete-Nicole