This document discusses guidelines for responsible and ethical journalism from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). It provides guidance on avoiding biased or harmful representations of groups in writing, and on sensitive topics like mental health, suicide, and immigration. It emphasizes using accurate, truthful language and considering alternative perspectives. Guidelines include avoiding offensive terms for mental illness, not defining people by their conditions, and describing suicide attempts factually rather than with value judgments. The NUJ aims to promote media freedom and ethical standards while protecting journalists' rights.

1. RESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM
Melissa Storey

2. NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS
 The National Union of Journalists is the voice for journalists
and journalism. We are an exclusive union that represents a
range of professionals. We strive to improve the pay and
conditions of our members and protect and promote media
freedom and ethical standards.

3. SOCIAL AND CUTLER AWARENESS
 As a journalist you will often need to write about certain groups of
people, and for some readers they may not have any first hand, or
little experience with these groups. It is important for journalists not to
be biased or create unhelpful representations of groups of people.
 The NUJ has a guide on how to talk about specific groups in a way
not to harm anyone and so journalists know how to talk
 This guideline is the ethical guidance sheet it is a guidance on ways
to write about Termism, Race, Asylum and Immigration, HIV,
Disability and Suicide.

4.  Here we have the Do’s and Don’t
when reporting mental health and
deaths by suicide. This is a quick
round up of what to do and what
not to do. But there is a 23 page
guide helping you how to write
about these topics.
o When writing about mental health
words like ‘psycho’, ‘loony’, ‘nutter’,
‘madman’, ‘schizo’ and ‘bonkers’
should not be used.
o They have not been to prison
therefore they would be discharged
not released. “Avoid defining
people by their mental health
problem as in ‘he’s a depressive’ or
‘she’s a schizophrenic’”
 You can find out more on the NUJ
Guidence for Reporting Mental
Health and Death By Suicide.

5.  Suicide is another topic that needs to be looked at carefully when
reported in the media. For example too much coverage can cause
copycat suicide. “This risk is increased “if the coverage is extensive,
prominent, sensational, or explicitly describes the method”. (Source –
World Health Organization Preventing Suicide – A Resource for
Media Professionals (2008)) The effect on the suicide rate depends
on the amount, duration, and prominence of media coverage.”
 The language used when coving a story like this should not be
described as ‘successful’ if someone dies, or ‘unsuccessful’, ‘failed’
or ‘suicide bid’ if it doesn’t result in death.
 It is better to use the phrases ‘died by suicide’, ‘took their own life’,
‘ended their own life’. Or ‘attempted’ or ‘non-fatal attempt’ when
someone survives.

6. CODE OF PRACTICE
1. At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of
expression and the right of the public to be informed.
2. Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair.
3. Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies.
4. Differentiates between fact and opinion.
5. Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of
investigations that are both overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence
that cannot be obtained by straightforward means.
6. Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding
consideration of the public interest.
7. Protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the
course of her/his work.
8. Resists threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or suppress information and takes no
unfair personal advantage of information gained in the course of her/his duties before the information is
public knowledge.
9. Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age,
gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation.
10. Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance endorse by advertisement any commercial
product or service save for the promotion of her/his own work or of the medium by which she/he is
employed.
11. A journalist shall normally seek the consent of an appropriate adult when interviewing or
photographing a child for a story about her/his welfare.
12. Avoids plagiarism

7. CONNOTATION
 The language used is a journalists most powerful tool on shaping our
views. This is why you must be carful when choosing your words as
different words connote a different meaning.
 For example ”psychopath” gives intentions the person is crazy and
angry all the time. These terms could be put into the wrong way
when talking about a person who is not this.
 The coverage on benefits and immigration in the media is usually
negative therefore the use of negative words to portray this is high.
But even the word immigration is linked to negative effects such as
‘failed’, ‘bogus’ and ‘steal’. The same is for benefits this is linked to
connotations such as ‘lazy’ and ‘hand outs’.

8.  This headline from the Daily
Express has the word
‘immigration’ crossing the whole
of the front page, making it look
important and almost like a
warning. If the word was replaced
with something like ‘foreign
workers’ it would have a different
impact because the reader would
link that to be a good headline as
it is boosting the economy rather
than a bad thing.

9.  This is an example on the guidelines for how to talk about certain
groups of people on the NUJ website. It tells you how you should
only use the word ‘Gypsy’ or ‘Traveller’ if it is accurate to the story.
Both these words have negative connotations to them. The same
with ‘Immigration’. Words such as ‘failed’ or ‘illegal’ should not be
used with the word immigration as it creates a negative portrayal on
immigrants.

10. ALTERNATIVE READING
 Journalists usually have a specific audience in mind but they also need to
consider others that may come across the report.
 Journalists should think carefully about the minority, subcultures and
victims that could read their report as they will have different views due to
their experiences.
 Thinking about Stuart Halls Reception Theory (1980) will help include
everyone's point of view with them being Dominant, Negotiated or
Oppositional.
For example a story on immigration should have a balanced argument
because if it was portrayed to be against immigrants this could upset and
offend a group of immigrants and it will also portray, for the rest of society, a
negative representation.

11. WEEK 2

12. OBJECTIVE
 Being a journalist you need to be creditable, trustworthy and reliable
so people will not question your reports, therefore you should be
unbiased, truthful and impartial.
 Most newspapers have a political agenda, if this is left wing or right
wing. Editors will push stories that support their political view.
Whichever side they are more towards they will find evidence to
support their main agenda and ideas, and discard evidence which
does not.
Left Wing: The Guardian, The
Independent, The Mirror.
Right Wing: The Express, Daily
Mail, The Sun, The Telegraph.

13. Daily Mail The Guardian
The picture of Lee in
the Daily Mail shows
a smart young man,
serving his county
but on the other
article it shows him
defenceless and
making people feel
sorry for what has
happened to him by
showing respects.
The Daily Mail say things like, “The social
network’s staff failed to tell MI5 about the
‘graphic and emotive’ posts from Michael
Adebowale.” warning and questioning why
Facebook didn’t do anything about these
graphic posts on several accounts Lee
Rigby’s murdered had just 6 months
before the attack.
The guardian say, “The former global counter-terrorism
director of MI6 has said it would be
impractical and unfair to expect Facebook to monitor
messages for terrorist intent and report them to the
security services.” This says how they cant blame
Facebook for something like this happening.

14. ACCURATE
 Names, dates, times, quotes etc. all need to be accurate. This means
gathered together correctly and have evidence to support this.
Accuracy is very important to be a credible journalist.
 Failure to report accurate information can cause harm and distress to
the person/people that have been written about and this could
damage their public profile.
 If someone feels they have been effected by an inaccurate report
they can complain to the Press Complaints Commission who will
investigate the case. If required they can force the publication to print
a correction or retraction.

15. Here are some examples of ways the press has had to deal with
complaints:
Wired:
“A previous version of this story incorrectly
quoted Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston
saying “anyone with nipples” instead of
“anyone with a pulse.””
The Sun:
“In an article on Saturday headlined ‘Flying
saucers over British Scientology HQ’, we
stated “two flat silver discs” were seen
“above the Church of Scientology HQ”.
Following a letter from lawyers for the
Church, we apologise to any alien lifeforms
for linking them to Scientologists.”
The New York Times:
“An article last Sunday about the documentary maker
Morgan Spurlock, who has a new film out on the boy
band One Direction, misstated the subject of his
2012 movie “Mansome.” It is about male grooming,
not Charles Manson. The article also misspelled the
name of the production company of Simon Cowell,
on whose “X Factor” talent competition show One
Direction was created. The company is Syco, not
Psycho.”

16. TRUTHFUL
 Presenting the truth to people as a journalist is important, especially
when reporting. If the full truth is not given then their fictional words
could have serious legal and ethical consequences.
 This rule is bent though. Newspapers do this to grab the attention of
readers and again to follow their political agenda. The most common
way this rule is bent is but changing statistics to make things seem
better or worse. For example universally it has been said “There are
3 million Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa.” But really there is
800,000 to 1 million. The reason this is said is because of one
American journalist. This journalist exaggerating statistics causes
wrong integrations about this group of people. This also happens a
lot in stories about immigration and benefits.

17. FAIR AND BALANCED
 The NUJ code of Ethics specify that journalists should not produce
work this is likely to lead to hatred or discrimination.
 To produce credible journalism, reporting topics should give a
balance argument of both sides and allow the reader to make their
decision based on the facts presented to them. But unfortunately
again this overlooked and ignored. Stories that are covered will
reflect on the political view of the news paper. This is handled very
unfairly in American journalism. With politicians in the party they
follow, in their agenda, they portray them with good, helpful stories.
And the other parties the reports are all against the work they have
done. This is power, being able to shape what the public heard and
their choices. This is why journalism needs to be fair and balanced.

18. WEEK 3

19. DEFAMATION
 Defamation is when a false statement harms the reputation of an
individual, a business, product, group, government, religion, or
nation.
 In print media defamation goes against being truthful, fair and
accurate and can lead to a liable case.
 For example:
Jim Carr, father of Jimmy Carr, won his seventh apology and settlement
for defamation from a national newspaper. The Daily Express
apologised to Jim Carr, for a headline that was written by Vanessa Feltz
saying: "Jimmy Carr's dad has a lot to answer for". It falsely stated that
he had been unfaithful to his wife.

20. COPYRIGHT
 Copyright covers the work that people create. Journalists must be
careful not to steal people’s work without permission.
 They should be careful not to plagiarise peoples work either.
Plagiarising work could lead to an infringement.
 For example:

21. CHILDREN/ YOUNGER PERSONS
 The Editors Code of Practice has a clear demand on how to talk
about a story concerning children and young people. It says:
 Young people should be free to complete their time at school without
unnecessary intrusion.
 A child under 16 must not be interviewed or photographed on issues
involving their own or another child’s welfare unless a custodial
parent or similarly responsible adult consents.
 Pupils must not be approached or photographed at school without
the permission of the school authorities.
 Minors must not be paid for material involving children’s welfare, nor
parents or guardians for material about their children or wards,
unless it is clearly in the child's interest.
 Editors must not use the fame, notoriety or position of a parent or
guardian as sole justification for publishing details of a child’s private
life.
It also has guides on stories about children in sex cases.

22. CONFIDENTIALLY
 Sometimes journalists have to talk to people who are breaking the
law in some legal activity such as drug dealing or people trafficking.
This is good way to get an exclusive story and people who are in this
trade would not want to be found out therefore names, faces etc.
must be kept confidential.
 The Editors Code of Practice states that, “Journalists have a moral
obligation to protect confidential sources of information”

23. OFFICIAL SECRET ACT
 The Official Secrets Act is used in the UK, Hong Kong, India, Ireland,
Malaysia, Canada and New Zealand to protect secret and official
information that is mainly related to the national security.
 People, as well as journalists will have to sign this Official Secret Act
before and after seeing something that has something to do with the
secret act such as going into a private army base to cover a story.
Only certain information will be able to be let out into the article and if
more information does arrest can be a consequence.

24. CODE OF PRACTICE
 1 Accuracy
 2. Opportunity to reply
 3. Privacy
 4. Harassment
 5. Intrusion in to shock or grief
 6. Children
 7. Children in sex cases
 8. Hospitals
 9. Reporting of crime
 10. Clandestine devices and subterfuge
 11. Victims of sexual assault
 12. Discrimination
 13. Financial journalism
 14. Confidential sources
 15. Witness payments in criminal trials
 16. Payment to criminals

25. CODE OF PRACTICE
 Looking at the Codes of Practice again, but this time for ethical
views. It gives journalists great guidelines to achieve an ethical
article. It helps journalists understand what to put in and to know
what is fact and what is factual.
 Although not every journalist follows the NUJ Code of Practice and
these rules are broken, we feel that this is the best way to create an
ethical and truthful article.
 Some people may break these rules to get a more exciting story or
for the “publics interest”. But if someone feels a journalist or
newspaper has acted inappropriately then they can complain to the
Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).

26. PUBLICS INTEREST
http://www.cusu.cam.ac.uk:8080/publications/tcs/Code_Aug_2007.pdf

27. PRIVACY
 Everyone is entitled to their own privacy. Or at least that is what is
written down in the Editors Code of Practice, but people still break
this rule for the publics interest.
 The NUJ says in the code of conduct that journalists should not
‘intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by
overriding consideration of the public interest”
 This happens quite a lot, for example NASA have broken this rule by
looking into peoples files, News of the World hacked into phone calls
and messages and photographers and journalists regularly go and
take pictures of weddings or funerals of celebrities or their families.

28. INTRUSION
 This leads me onto intrusion. In the Editors Code of Practice it says
journalist must not intrude in to grief or shock. This is also covered in
the NUJ Code of Conduct.
 But again this rule is broken because journalists say it is in the
interest of the public to know. But there is a fine line between the
public interest and the interest of the public.

29. HARASSMENT
 Here is the code in the Editors Code of Practice for harassment.
 Journalists should stop contacting the person when asked but again
this rule is broken for the publics interest.