Matakuliah : O0394 – Teknik Reportase dan News Caster Tahun : 2010 Ethics, Media, and Society – in Practice Pertemuan 11 – 12 Learning Objectives This material will discuss global journalistic ethical practices that are conducted based on guidelines covered in the previous part, Ethics and Media. It is expected that the discussion will broaden the students’ understanding on journalistic ethics in global practices. 3 Why Bother with Ethical Codes? (1/5) THE PROS Some regard ethical codes as vehicles of professionalization; A means of professional education; Instruments of consciousness-raising and as deliberate attempts by journalists to regulate the media and ward off legislation restricting their activities; 4 Why Bother with Ethical Codes? (2/5) THE CONTRAS Some argue that codes inherently restrict press freedom by encouraging certain patterns of behavior and condemning others; The media are more effectively regulated by the market; Critics also claim that only few journalists are aware of the content of codes particularly when the codes are constantly being changed. For example: The original Press Complaints Commission’s code of 1991 has been amended 16 times. 5 Why Bother with Ethical Codes? (3/5) Some values are in codes throughout the world (Grevisse 1999, Laitila 1993): Fairness; The separation of facts and opinion; The need for accuracy linked with the responsibility to correct errors; the deliberate distortion & suppression of information are condemned; Upholding journalists’ responsibility to guard citizens’ right to freedom of expression; 6 Why Bother with Ethical Codes? (4/5) Maintaining confidentiality of sources; Recognizing a duty to defend the dignity and independence of the profession; Protecting people’s right to privacy; Respecting and seeking after truth; Struggling against censorship; Avoiding discrimination on grounds of race, sexual orientation, gender, language, religion or political opinions; and avoiding conflicts of interest. 7 Why Bother with Ethical Codes? (5/5) There are range of steps you can take to exploit the ‘media accountability systems’ (Claude-Jean Bertrand, 1999): Letters to the editors; Boyscotts; Complain to relevant bodies; and Join campaigning groups such as the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom. 8 Journalists-Source Relationship – a Dilemma (1/10) There are 3 (three) main types of interview: 1. On-the-record: the source trusts the journalist to report what is said fairly and accurately; 2. Off-the-record: the source prefers not to be disclosed because of its sensitive nature. Off-the record agreement leaves the journalist free to secure the same information from an alternative. This type of information can benefit the journalist and the source. 9 Journalists-Source Relationship – a Dilemma (2/10) 3. Unattributed/ background comments Reports can carry quotes from the interviews but attribution is vague to hide identities on particularly sensitive subjects. If journalists are to carry unattributed quotes, then the source should be already known as reliable and they should be identified as clearly as possible without revealing their identities. 10 Journalists-Source Relationship – a Dilemma (3/10) Guardian Editor, Alan Rusbridger, on July 15 2000, announced a “stricter code” on using anonymous pejorative quotes: “And we will encourage reporters to be as specific as possible about the source of any anonymous quotation.” 11 Journalists-Source Relationship – a Dilemma (4/10) Confidential Source? – A Further Dilemma Some supporting statements on confidential source: John Wilson (1996: 86), former editorial policy controller of BBC: “One of the few accepted absolutes in journalism is that confidential sources must be protected.” 12 Journalists-Source Relationship – a Dilemma (5/10) Under Section 10 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981, courts have the right to demand that journalists reveal sources if ‘disclosure is necessary in the interests of justice or national security or for the prevention of disorder or crime.’ 13 Journalists-Source Relationship – a Dilemma (6/10) Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1984, police investigating a ‘serious offense’ can obtain an order requiring the journalists to submit evidence considered useful to the court. The evidence can include unpublished photographs, computer files and notes. With misfortunes, some journalists finally risked fines and imprisonment to preserve confidential sources. 14 Journalists-Source Relationship – a Dilemma (7/10) Allowing the Source Access to the Report Before Publication/ Broadcasting There are 3 (three) different approaches on this issue: 1.Disallowing the source access to the report or script before it appears: 2.Allowing the copy or script to go through untouched with the risk of the source may want minor if not major changes; 15 Journalists-Source Relationship – a Dilemma (8/10) As Chris Frost (op. cit.: 76) argues strongly: “Showing the copy to an interviewee is a tacit admission that the piece is Public Relations and not journalism.” 3.Collaborative action between the journalists and the source. The final piece then becomes the product of a joint exercise between journalist and the source. 16 Journalists-Source Relationship – a Dilemma (9/10) American Janet Malcom (1991:1) in the Journalist and the Murderer comments: “Every relationship with a source is exploitative and ‘morally indefensible’. BUT Roger Graef challenges Malcom, by advocating a collaborative relationship with sources. As he comments: “The notion of any kind of collaboration evokes a kind of journalistic capitulation that … but in our experience, the sense of collaboration allows the participants to keep their dignity not only during filming but crucially during and after transmission.” 17 Journalists-Source Relationship – a Dilemma (10/10) Does the Internet Throw up New Ethical Issues? The interactivity of the internet means journalists can have much closer contact with their audience and sources. As commentator such as Jon Katz (1997): “The internet is transforming the journalist-audience relationship: from being an unquestioned expert, the journalist now becomes simply a facilitator of debate.”18 The Ethics of Unpleasant Coverage (1/4) Privacy Is a Privacy Law Necessary to Control the Media? According to Mathew Kieran (2000: 163): “Privacy concerns certain areas of our lives over which we exercise autonomous control and which it is not the business or right of others to concern themselves with unless we so choose.” 19 The Ethics of Unpleasant Coverage (2/4) Supposedly, privacy is regarded as a fundamental human right but how to protect privacy? The French elite believes in the importance of protecting privacy; The Constitutions of Italy and Belgium also protect citizen’s rights to privacy; In the United States, Australia, and Canada there are statutory defenses to privacy; But in Britain, there is concern over precisely defining ‘privacy’ and ‘public interest’. 20 The Ethics of Unpleasant Coverage (3/4) Subterfuge (Deception) The Codes (ITC, BSC, PCC) agreed in stressing that subterfuge is only legitimate in the public interest and when the material cannot be obtained by other means. Under the ITC code, the approval of the broadcasting company’s senior program executive is required before commencing secret filming. 21 The Ethics of Unpleasant Coverage (4/4) ‘Deathknocks’ (Interviewing of relatives/ friends after someone’s death) The momentum of journalists respecting the privacy of individuals began on the massacre of 16 children and a teacher in a primary school in Dunblane in 1996. As John Taylor commented (1998: 105): “The response was also marked by a new, rare respect for privacy: the media voluntarily stopped invading the privacy of people whose their loved ones died in the massacre…”22 Constraints on Journalists (1/8) Murder The ultimate constraint the journalists will likely face is murder which can be in the form of: threats when covering demonstrations, intimidation, anonymous phone calls, and open aggression. Therefore, journalists on dangerous assignments should be encouraged to work in pairs or three. 23 Constraints on Journalists (2/8) Legal Constraints Many laws exist to restraint (control) or, at least, restrict the media. For example a new antiterrorism legislation that provoked concerns amongst civil right campaigners and journalists and the journalists covering direct action could be caught or carrying a five-year sentence. 24 Constraints on Journalists (3/8) Advertisers Pressures from advertisers can be obvious as when they seek to influence editorial policy or withdraw support after critical coverage. As Curran and Seaton (1991: 38) argue that the emergence of an advertisement-based, mass-selling newspaper industry in the latter half of the 19th century helped control the development of a radical, trade union-based press. 25 Constraints on Journalists (4/8) Pressure from proprietors Newspapers journalists have also faced considerable pressures from their proprietors. Editorial have been rewritten, lay-outs have been changed. As Anthony Bevins (1990: 15) argue: “… dissident reporters who do not follow the proprietor’s line will suffer professional death.” 26 Constraints on Journalists (5/8) New Pressure from the Police Harry Blackwood, editor of the Hartlepool Mail, commented: “Many police officers don’t want newspapers to report crime as they say it will increase the fear of crime. May be the police officers would like to consider how the victims feel when they are attacked by the criminals…” 27 Constraints on Journalists (6/8) Secret Service Journalists are used by people from Secret Service to help them accomplish their mission. For example: John Simpson, of BBC world affairs editor (1999: 296- 7) describes how he was once approached by a ‘man from M15’ to make him broadcast something favorable for the agent. 28 Constraints on Journalists (7/8) How Journalists might respond to those challenges, temptations, and threats? Preparing certain strategies on whether to publish or not to publish the news; Collaborating with other journalists to protest the threat to press freedom; For example: 150 fellow journalists signed up a half-page advertisement in the Times on 3 May 2000 protesting the press freedom on publication of the assassination of Colonel Gaddafi of Libya. 29 Constraints on Journalists (8/8) Utilizing whistle-blowers to expose and break through the constraints on coverage. For example: Cathy Massiter, an M15 F Branch Officer, bravely revealed to Channel 4’s 20/20 how surveillance of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activists had been stepped up in the early 1980s. Obtaining support from the Government on Freedom of Press. For example: The US First Amendment guarantees press freedom. 30 Closing By understanding the ethical related coverage, the constraints and how to handle all the constraints that possibly faced by the journalists, it is expected that students will be ready to prepare themselves to challenge a set of activities during the news production. 31