The importance of ethics in journalism

Ethics is a crucial part of journalism and should be something all journalists keep in mind when writing a story. A good example of when ethics should be at the forefront of journalism is when covering a controversial topic such as the Black Lives Matter movement that happened last year. A journalist should be careful when interviewing people as some of the people who were at the protests were there for malicious intent. The journalist should be sure to tell the correct story and focus on the facts. Also, as mentioned in Chapter 20 of the book it could be an invasion of privacy to put in someone’s name who was at the protest as it could incriminate someone. Overall a journalist should consider ethics a major pillar to becoming a successful journalist.

Police car on fire during BLM protest in Seattle, May 30th. Photo by Fred Nicholson.