Journalists have a responsibility to consider the social and cultural impact of their work. The National Union of Journalists provides guidelines to help journalists meet their ethical obligations. These guidelines cover topics like race, asylum, and disability and provide direction on balanced and sensitive reporting. If journalists fail to follow the guidelines, they could lose privileges from the union.

1. The NUJ
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2. The Importance of Cultural and Social Awareness
Journalists can be very important figures in our society who's opinion and views on situations can shape
the views of others who are exposed to their writings. Because of this they have a duty to take their social,
legal and ethical responsibilities seriously and be mindful of the impact that their work could have on society.
To help journalists, and give them something to refer to if they are unsure of something, the National
Union of Journalists (NUJ) have released a set of guidelines for there members to follow. There is even a hotline
that can be called to talk to someone who can offer advice.
These guides and advice must be followed by journalists to insure they meet their obligations. If a
journalist who is a member of the NUJ repeatedly does not follow the guidelines then they may be thrown out
of the union and lose all the privileges that come with it. These privileges include things like legal backing and
the resources such as the hotline.

3. Social and Cultural Awareness
• Because Journalists write stories that are published nationwide or even worldwide, the
groups of people they write about will always reach people who have had little or no
interaction with the people featured in the news story.
• This gives journalists the very important responsibility of making first introductions. They
must report the news accurately, but must not represent a whole group of people badly. For
example if one illegal immigrant makes it across the border only to thief and fight his way into
prison a journalist must not give the impression that all immigrants are this way.
• Many groups are badly represented in the news and media and this changes social attitude
towards these people in general society.
• The NUJ have compiled a range of ethical guidance sheets so that its members can refer to
them when writing about different groups of people.

4. The NUJ’s Ethical Guidelines.
The NUJ have prepared guidelines for the reporting of;
• Terrorism
• Race
• Asylum and Immigration
• HIV
• Age
• Disability
• Suicide
These guidelines include different do’s and don’ts to assist journalists. In the Asylum
and Immigration section it says to only call an immigrant an “illegal immigrant” if this is
strictly relevant and accurate. All call for a balanced report to be presented, seeking the
opinions of both parts and in the Racism section journalists are asked to take on a measure
of responsibility in fighting the evil of racism.
Guidelines concerning current situations are also released as well as the above seven.
For example there is a set of guidelines for the reporting of Ebola on the NUJ website in the
wake of the recent outbreak.

5. Examples of journalists disregarding their obligations.
• All these headlines give the
impression that this whole group
of people does this.
• For example all Muslims did not
plan to kill the pope.
• And not all people on benefits are
scroungers.

6. Connotation
• When you read a word, your brain does not stop there, doorways are opened to hundreds of
other words, descriptions and opinions you have learnt to associate with this word from your
past experiences.
• This is called “Connotation”.
• Journalists must be mindful of the words they use and the connotations that these words
have in order to make the correct representation of a person or group of people.
• For example because of the negative press around this subject for a long while now, the word
“immigrant” must be used carefully.
• The reason for this is because immigrant has now become too heavily associated with words
such as “illegal”, “Crime”, “Stealing” and “Ban”. Because of this even if the journalist is talking
about a perfectly legal, hard working immigrant, simply by using this word a negative
representation is likely to be made about them.
• A journalist should try to avoid using this words that have negative connotations or if they
are completely relevant and necessary writers should explain the persons situation in order
to cancel out the negative connotations.
• Sometimes of course these words with strong emotive connotations are used purposefully to
manipulate a readers opinion the way a journalist or editor wants them to be.

7. Alternative Readings
• When a journalist writes they must be mindful of the fact that anyone could pick up and read
their article. Because of this they must write in a way that the people they are writing about
would be pleased about as well as the people they are writing for.
• For example, a report on a religious tradition must be properly researched and understood so
that nothing is said that would cause offence or disrespect members of this religion whilst
educating others about it.
• If a news reporter writes an article about Halal meat and how the animal is slaughtered they
should be careful to make it clear that the animals are still killed humanely and cleanly, just
by a different method. Failure to do so and any suggestion that this method of slaughter is
unclean or barbaric will offend and anger Muslims who see the article and could give an
unfair platform to anti-Muslim groups.

8. Objective.
•Journalism should be unbiased and always present a clear and impartial argument in order for it
to be considered credible.
•When a journalist starts writing their work with a premeditated outcome for it, they will form a
piece of work heavily influenced by their opinion and not a fair, impartial one. This is often done
by including a much larger proportion of evidence supporting their opinion and disregarding
compelling counter arguments.
•The ideal situation would be that no newspapers would publish bias work, but the reality is that
many papers are motivated by their political standings and will write work in order to make their
particular party look the best. Editors will only publish stories that match their political agenda and
will only publish stories that are written in a way that matches this same agenda.
•If you were to compare two articles on the same story from either side of the political spectrum
you would see clear differences in the way they were written.

9. Accurate.
•Professional, Credible journalism must be accurate.
•Simple information like names, dates, quotes and places must all be recorded correctly to be used
in support of the evidence.
•If a piece is written around incorrect facts then it will be inaccurate and can tarnish the reputation
of the responsible journalist, the Newspaper that featured it and the people the story is about.
• If a person feels that an incorrect story has been written about them they can report it to the
Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) who will then, if required, force the publication
to print a correction or retraction, apologising for the mistake.
•In many cases sadly, by this point the damage has already been done and the reputation of the
person involved has already been damaged beyond repair.
•One example in a story published by The Sun openly released photographs and the rough location
of a man who they claimed to be a pedophile, brandishing him “Kid Ban Pervert”. This forced him
to flee his home in fear of being attacked and having to start the process of clearing his name to
his family and everyone he knew.

10. Truthful.
•It is very important that for journalism to be credible it must be truthful.
•A journalist must ensure that they are writing facts and stories that are completely truthful.
Straying away from the truth will mean cause people to believe untrue facts and will shape their
opinions falsely.
•Bad journalists will sometimes write a story they know is untrue to either fill their page or adding
a section onto a story that will support their opinion on the story. This is not only untrue but
inaccurate and if done to shape an audiences opinion is also not an objective report so breaks
many of the guidelines.
•Journalists often twist statistics and figures in order to make a point that will support their
viewpoint or the viewpoint they are being paid to write from.
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11. Fair & Balanced.
•Writing should be non-discriminatory and be written with an open mind. Journalists should never
produce work that is likely to lead to hatred or discrimination.
•Journalists should tell both sides of the story in their writing to form a well balanced and fair
report of it. This allows a reader to make their own opinion based on the facts they have learned.
•This rule is often ignored and newspapers and journalists usually break it in order to appease
their audience or to keep to a specific political agenda.

12. Legal Obligation:
Journalists have many legal obligations that they must consider when writing.
Defamation:
This is the false accusation off an offence or the misrepresentation of someone's words or actions
in away that could damage their reputation. This goes against many of the obligations such as
being truthful, fair and accurate. Defamation often leads to libel cases.
Copyright:
Copyright is the law that allows people to take ownership of work that they create. Journalists
must ensure that they don’t break copyright law by reproducing work without expressed
permission.
Children and Young Persons:
When reporting a story that concerns children or young people there is clear guidelines telling
journalists how this should be handled. They state things such as that children should be free to
complete their time at school without intrusion and that children under a certain age must not be
named unless permission is given.

13. Confidentiality:
In order to get a clear and well rounded story, journalists often speak to criminals or people that
attend illegal events or do some illegal things. Journalists are protected from having to reveal their
sources of information and the names of people involved in cases. This is because no one would
talk to the journalists if the journalists then went to tell the police who and where these criminals
are.
In the Editors code of practice it says; “Journalists have a moral obligation to protect
confidential sources of information”.
Official Secrets:
This law protects state secrets and national security.
When people work in places that deal with secrets of the state they often have to sign the
official secrets act to ensure they do not reveal these secrets.
This act is sometimes used to force journalists to reveal their sources if the authorities
believe that there has been a threat to national security.

14. Ethical
There are many ethical responsibilities that a journalist must consider when going about their
work.
Codes of Practice.
There are many different codes of practice that act as guidelines to help journalists with certain
issues. For example the NUJ codes and the Editors Code of Practice help journalists on how to
write about different things.
Having these codes gives a journalist and the public a set of standards to compare work to or to
ensure that they meet. It makes it easier to see when something is ethically wrong and easier to
write ethical work.
The industry regulates the codes themselves and so is often not enforced strongly enough. It
has been found in the case of some journalists and editors that they break the codes on an
almost daily basis!
If a person believes that a journalist or newspaper has acted inappropriately then they can put a
compliant to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).

15. Privacy
In the editors code of practice there is a section on Privacy. It states that everyone is
entitled to their own privacy and that journalists have an ethical obligation to respect their
private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital
communications.
In the NUJ code of conduct it outlines that journalists should not “intrude into anybody’s
private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public
interest”.
This means that if a journalist believes that the public need to know something, they can
report on it, what it has often become however, is just an excuse allowing journalists to
ignore the privacy guidelines.
There is a difference between public interest and matters the will interest the public and
this difference is often misunderstood or more likely purposefully ignored by journalists.
Intrusion
In the Editors Code of Practice it says that journalists must not intrude into grief or shock.
In cases involving personal grief or shock any enquiries or approaches must be made with
sympathy and discretion with the publication handled sensitively. This does not restrict the
right to report legal proceedings.
The NUJ code of practice also covers intrusion stating that a journalist must ensure they do
nothing to intrude on an individuals private life, grief or distress unless justified by
overriding consideration of the public interest.

16. Harassment
The Editors Code of Practice is very clear about harassment stating that journalists must not
intimidate, harass or persistently pursuit people. If asked to do so they must immediately
stop photographing or contacting a person.
In practice, as many of the other codes, the defense of harassment usually revolves around
the “Public Interest”.