1. Ethical Encounters
Reflecting on your
own ethics

2. Media law and ethics
• From the journalist’s perspective not the
lawyer’s
• Often difficult to separate legal and ethical
issues when discussing events and cases from
the media
• Journalism is about “truth-seeking”, so is the
law.
• Ethics is based on versions of the truth

3. Law and ethics important because?
• Journalists, editors and those who work in the
news system have a public responsibility
• Knowing about the law can help with what
Pearson calls “self-preservation”
• Respect for law and ethics is the mark of
“professionalism”
– Professionalism is used to draw a boundary
around the “reportorial community”

4. The ethico-legal paradox
• Ethics and the law often
overlap
• Sometimes the law and
ethics come into conflict
• In some cases the legal
and ethical considerations
share common ground
– Reputation and
Defamation

6. Examples of the ethico-legal paradox
• Chequebook journalism – Why?
– It’s not illegal – except in some jurisdictions
– Proceeds of crime legislation
• A reporter using a hidden camera – Why?
– Recording vision is not illegal
– Recording sound without knowledge is illegal
• Deception may be acceptable under certain
conditions – What are they?

7. Ways of framing ethical issues
• Descriptive – describing the situation and
invite us to apply our own moral reasoning
• Normative – define what is ‘good’ and
‘bad’ behaviour and establish social rules
(‘norms’)
• Universalist – usually ‘rights-based’
approaches
• Situational ethics – here are the
circumstances, how should we act in this
situation
• Key question: What should we do when
confronted with a dilemma?

8. Ethics and moral reason
• Moral reasoning is an
important measure of the
health of a society
• Our ‘moral compass’ leads us
to adopt a set of individual
and collective values –
emotional attitudes
• Aristotle’s “golden mean” –
how does this apply in a slave-
owning society?
• Moral reasoning occurs in the
context of social and material
pressures (fault lines)

9. When approaching ethics we inevitably
encounter philosophy – at least its
landmarks – and we are led to a terrain of
contradictions, which offers few simple
“right answers”.
But that is precisely what makes media
ethics intellectually stimulating.
It is much less interesting and challenging
to study concepts in an abstract and static
world than to wrestle with the three
dilemmas that I highlight in my introduction
to the special issue of European Journal of
Communication on media ethics
(Nordenstreng 1995c): universal vs.
particular, individualism vs.
communitarianism, freedom vs. control.
Kaarle Nordenstreng, The structural context of
media ethics (2000)

10. Fault lines in media law & ethics
• “reality is always more concrete,
and therefore more complex than
an abstract argument about
ideals, rights, and responsibilities.”
• A fault line is?
– A crack, fissure or indication of a
seismic event
– A continuum along which various
emotional attitudes might lie

11. What is the relation of the media power
to the people’s power?
Taking freedom of speech as a basic
principle, the task of the media, and of
journalism in particular, is to serve the
people and not those who wield power,
be that power political or economic.
Thus, in Galtung's figure the media
should be located closer to the Civil
Society.
It is not healthy for the cause of democracy
that the media should move from the political
camp to the economic camp and remain the
tool of those elites in society, while the
people continue on their own path as
consumers and spectators.
Nordenstreng, 2000.

12. Dialectic: freedom and
responsibility
• Journalists argue that they need freedom to
report ‘without fear or favour’
• Society argues that journalists must be
responsible - not report things that are
untrue, or that will cause harm
• How do we theorise and argue a balance
between freedom and responsibility?
• Is there a “golden mean” in this equation?

13. Duties and Consequences
• Deontology: from the Greek
deon meaning ‘duty’.
– We have a duty to be ethical
in our actions
• Teleology: from the Greek
telos meaning ‘the end
result’
– Also known as
‘consequentialism’
– We must be aware of the
consequences of our actions

15. Core ideologies in journalism
• Accountability (responsibility)
– accountability engenders trust (MEAA code of
ethics)
• Accuracy
– accuracy is about getting the story right, not just
the facts
• Balance and bias
– journalism is about interpretation, hence the
potential for bias
– interpretation involves selection and ordering of
the ‘facts’

16. Utility and Virtue
• Utilitarianism: Always act in the interests of
the greater social good
– Put society’s interests above your own
• Virtue Ethics: Always act in the most
virtuous way possible
– Virtue is itself an ‘intrinsic good’ hence to act
with virtue is the true test of humanity

17. Rights and Contracts
• Human rights are universal and this means
journalists should always and every where
respect fundamental human rights.
– Of course human rights are a social construct and
hence ‘variable’
• Journalists have a Social Contract with their
audience to provide honest, reliable and
unbiased news information.
• What are the moral duties and rights of a
journalist?

18. Fault lines in Journalism
• Cracks or fissures caused by
earth tremors
– Ethical dilemmas that can arise
from seemingly random events
– Fault lines can be mild, leaving
almost no trace
– Fault lines can reach tsunami-like
proportions and cause massive
structural damage
– Ethical fault lines are part of the
everyday ‘lived experience’ of
‘doing’ journalism

19. Arguments and Cases
• Ethical dilemmas in practice:
– do your own beliefs and ‘moral compass’ affect how you
see the world?
– What impact would your own values have on your
journalism?
• What’s more important – duties, rights, or
consequences?
– Is the ‘greatest good’ always the best thing?
– Is the ‘first do no evil’ rule appropriate in journalism? What
about public relations?
– What is ‘evil’?
– Is moral reasoning a good basis for media ethics?

20. Fear nor Favour
Report without fear or favour
• Do not change your
reporting because you like
the person involved, or are
afraid of the person
involved, or wonder what
the person involved with
think of you in the
morning.

21. Healthy scepticism
If someone asks you NOT
to report, you must
(unless there is another
really, really, really
good reason)
• People will try anything
to stop a story getting
into the newspaper.
Always be suspicious.

22. Respect = Strength
Treat everyone with respect,
whoever they are.
• Give them the option of doing
things the easy way
• Remember that people don’t
know the media’s rules
• Being fair does not make you
weak, but being weak does not
make you fair.

23. Speak truth to power
Don’t be cowed by
authority
• Some people have more
credibility than others but
never take things for
granted
• Avoid making judgements
about people based on
their membership to a
particular group
• But – never be naïve

24. Remember the questions
Be consistent in your treatment of
people/stories
• Ask WHY is this a story
• HOW have you covered this kind of
story in the past
• WHAT will the results of your
coverage be
• WHEN would you have a more
complete story – should you run it
now?

25. 1. What do I know? What do I need to know?
2. What is my journalistic purpose?
3. What are my ethical concerns?
4. What organizational policies and professional guidelines should I consider?
5. How can I include other people, with different perspectives and diverse ideas, in the
decision-making process?
6. Who are the stakeholders -- those affected by my decision? What are their motivations?
Which are legitimate?
7. What if the roles were reversed? How would I feel if I were in the shoes of one of the
stakeholders?
8. What are the possible consequences of my actions? Short term? Long term?
9. What are my alternatives to maximize my truthtelling responsibility and minimize harm?
10. Can I clearly and fully justify my thinking and my decision? To my colleagues? To the
stakeholders? To the public?

26. Honesty is the best policy
Be beyond reproach
• Don’t be compromised over
anything
• Make all declarations (at least
to your boss, ideally to the
reader)
• Don’t associate with criminals
• Watch political/organisational
links

27. Remember the audience
Don’t disgust or belittle
your reader/audience
• Remember people
are reading you over
breakfast
• Remember people
are watching you for
enjoyment
• Emotion is
important – use it
wisely

28. Conscious and Conscientious
Be conscious of your power
• Everything you write has an
impact
• Don’t be cavalier or
malicious

29. Think!
Always be aware of the bigger picture
• What are the implications of
what you write?
• What are the risks to the people
about whom you write?
• Is there anything you can do to
lessen the blow while still
writing the story?