Media Ethics

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Media Ethics

By Qaqamba Matundu

Journalistic ethics are common values that guide reporters. They lay out both the aspirations and obligations that journalists, editors and others working in the field should follow to execute their work responsibly.

Now what are ethics? According to a report I read by Andrews George, ethics is a study of what is right or wrong in human conduct. I believe ethics governs the way people behave when doing something for example, last week I was playing a board game called 30 seconds with my classmates. The game governs us on how to behave and act as we conduct the play. You do not do as you do please, same thing applies on journalism.

Both morality and ethics loosely have to do with distinguishing the difference between “good and bad” or “right and wrong”, but there is a difference between the two. Morality describes the principle that governs our behavior. Without these principles in place, societies cannot survive for long.

Law according to dictionary is the system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the government  imposition of penalties. When it comes to journalism there are laws that a person get to know like copyright, discrimination and hate speech laws, defamation of character etc.

Let me make an example with defamation. Writing false statement about someone and publish it with intentions of damaging someone’s reputation is known as defamation of characters and there are remedies for it. A person can be asked to pay money, interdicts or apologize which now agree to the with the definition of law when it talks about imposition of penalties. There was once a case of Basetsana Khumalo in 2016 suing Drum Magazine for writing on their publication claiming that she “undergone a botched liposuction” which is something used to be for losing fats.

The difference between the 3 concepts is that, ethics are rules of conduct. Laws are rules developed by government in order to provide balance in society and protection to its citizens. Ethics comes from people’s awareness of what is right and wrong. Laws are enforced by government to their people. Ethics does not carry any punishment to anyone who violate it. The law will punish anyone who happens to violate it. Ethics comes from within a person’s moral values. Laws are made with ethics as a guiding principle.

It is essential for journalists to know the difference the difference between the concept of ethics, morality and law so that they can know what to do. According to Hosbeg, journalists are expected to report honest, fair and accurate, so for them to know these concepts can be very helpful. They can stay away on engaging to things that might see them facing lawsuit. Lastly journalists who do not follow these codes of ethics governing the profession find themselves in court for things such s misrepresentation, defamation, harassment, intrusion, subterfuge etc.

When it comes to the impact of journalists, it is said that journalist is a person who writes and prepare news to be broadcasted so that the public can know events going on around them. I would say journalists serve to witness events and then report them to us. It is through them that the government and their citizens communicate. Lets says for instance there is a protest by community members regarding an issue of not having water. Journalists go to the protest, interview protesters and then spread the news on media platforms for government to see and hear. Same applies to when the government replies, journalists are the ones who report to those citizens.

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