Chad Heimann

Journalistic Ethics

Newsroom Ethics

To some, ethics in the newsroom is a paradox, while to others ethics are seen as a strict moral code which to some degree determine what personal decisions a reporter will decide while in the newsroom and out on a beat. To determine my own code of ethics I looked to my own personal experience and the always faithful Potter Box to write my own code of ethics that is posted below with explanations.

1. Do not print anything but the truth or nothing at all.

I believe that by only submitting the truth, a report will never have to subject themselves from many of the instances that can come up from publishing a non truthful story.

2. Everything is on the record unless your source says it’s “off the record”, at the point everything said after is considered “off the record.”

By waiting for your source to say something is “off the record”, you as a journalist are able to get as much information as possible until a source feels the need to say something is “off the record.” This gives you the journalist the ability to publish everything spoken up to the point that the source decides to go “off the record.”

3.Never risk not fact checking, just to break a story first.

While it may seem like a good idea to send a story to press early, by not fact checking a journalist runs the risk of misprinting stories that aren’t the truth.