By Fidel Onyeneke
Every profession has its ethics and codes of operations. What makes an individual a sound professional is the person’s ability to strictly keep to the ethics of the profession in the performance of duties. There are stipulated codes of conduct, guidelines, rules and regulations governing the activities of all professions.
These stipulated rules are adhered to, and observed to the letters. Ethics involves rules and principles of behavior in Journalism profession, the situation is not in any way different. Different countries of the world, including Nigeria, have the ethics and codes guiding the operations of the media practitioners and journalists.
Generally speaking, the code of ethics of journalists makes it abundantly clear that journalism practitioners must have respect for truth, and the public’s right to information. Suffice it to say that journalist ethics are the common values that guide editors and reporters. Under the fundamental principles of journalism, the practitioners are expected to commit themselves to honesty, fairness, independence, and respect for the rights of others.
Scholars on media, have identified journalistic ethics as the common values that guide the reporters, editors and other media practitioners. The ethics lays out both the aspiration and obligations which these class of media workers must observe and obey.
According to Wikipedia, media ethics is the subdivision dealing with the ethical principles and standards of the media, including broadcast media, film, theatre, the arts, print media and the internet. The field covers many varied and highly controversial topics, ranging from war journalism to campaigns. Media ethics therefore is a branch that addresses moral issues arising in connection with the acquisition, preparation, storage, presentation and dissemination of information, using various channels of communication.
Succinctly put, the five principles of ethical journalism are truth and accuracy, independence, fairness and impartiality, humanity and accountability. All these are applied when processing and handling news items in a media outfit.
Talking about the word “News”, what comes into the mind of a practitioner is the true meaning of news, and what constitute “News”. Different people have come out with different definitions for news. Some simply see it as processed data, while others view news as stories that are worthy to be disseminated to the masses, for consumption.
However, news is seen by professionals, as a report of current events. It is information about something that has just happened or which will happen soon. News is a report about recent happenings in a newspaper, television radio or internet.
Google will further tell you that news is something that is not known earlier. News may be provided through different media, word of mouth, printing, postal system, telephones, broadcasting, the social media etc.
Various kinds of news exist. They include news articles, news analysis, editorials and opinions. For the average journalist, type of news which one often comes across are day-to-day breaking news stories, entertainment news, investigative news, opinions, sports news among others.
The basic product of any media organization is the news. This is paramount since the masses rely on media houses and other sources of information for authentic and accurate news as a deliberate move to satisfy their thirst for knowledge, education and entertainment. In order to live up to expectation, conventional media organizations usually create different desks to handle different kinds and types of news, for the benefit of their audience. Jerome Okuru in his book titled “The challenges of Journalism” stated that in journalism, everybody from the rank of chief editor to the least person involved in editorial work is basically a reporter.
Of course, the reason is obvious since the primary objective of the media is to retrieve, process and disseminate information and ideas. That is why the knowledge of the theory of journalism is of great essence to media practitioners. A reporter must have the average training and experience on professional news gathering.
The newspaper as its name implies is a “News paper”. This informed the fact that news items occupy up to 80 percent of the total space of each daily newspaper. The same is applicable to radio stations, television houses and the wireless/news agencies.
Considering the varieties of news, people have different perception of news. For instance what is news to the journalist could be the most deplorable or tragic incident. This is because journalism reflects tense situations.
Titillating news items about disasters, catastrophes, violence, murder and criminality generally have the pleasant sensation of fear, horror and emotional impart on the listeners, viewers and readers. That is why Rafael Caldera in defining the concept of news said “No news is good news”.
The efficacy of information is not only defined by its journalistic quality but also by the way the audience accepts or rejects it. The truth is that modern journalism has assumed a more dimensional approach to news reporting.
Tom Wolfe’s Anthology of the best new journalism emphasizes the essence of breaking away from third-person sourced information to using materials derived from personal observations. While agreeing that a news item must contain the 5-W formular (who, what, when, where, why), emphasis needs to be placed on the in-depth reporting and interpretation of the news, to enable the content penetrate the minds of the audience.
A good journalist must study and be abreast with the house style of his or her media agency. The journalist must know the vision and mission of the media outfit. It is only when you take enough time to assess your society, the environment the culture and the tradition of the people, that you can serve the public without hindrances.
What news that may be required by a particular society may not go down well with others. Consideration must be given to the identified information needs of the various sections of the society.
The media practitioner must be conscious of the existing cultural and religious differences. Target and objective of a media organization should be aimed at enhancing socio-economic and political growth of the society as well as enhancing peace, unity and progress.
The journalist must have the professional acumen of assessing news items with a view to determining what is news and what is not news. This task has become crucial with the advent of many confirmed and unconfirmed sources of information, including the social media.
Lazy journalist fall into the temptation of lifting stories from the social media, without adequate verification little wonder most African Nations including Nigeria are battling with the issue of false news and fake news. Cases have been reported where some media houses published fabricated and concocted stories which they retrieved from the various social media platform.
Care must be taken to ensure that stories are verified before publication. Fake news and false information kills the integrity, honour and credibility of not just the reporter, but the media outfit as a corporate entity. Similar to this, is carrying stories that promote violence, disunity, insecurity and tribal inflictions. In journalism practice, the constitution, rules and regulations of the nations and its agencies should be respected and given the required consideration.
The laws of the land must also be obeyed. It must be noted that violation of the country’s law in the course of ones practice, attracts appropriate sanctions. Closely related to this, is the violation of the ethics of the journalism profession which attracts appropriate fines and sanctions to the journalist and erring media organizations. A typical instance of ethical violation is publishing allegations by a single source without attempting to verify accuracy.
Also omitting facts provided to the journalist that would have led the reader/viewer to a different conclusion is an ethical offence. In the same way, calling for comments after normal business hours when there would have been time for the journalist to call earlier is unethical. These ethical offences abound, and are committed on regular basis.
Samphina Academy in a research, discovered that inspite of sanctions, political influence, bribery and corruption and other ungodly acts are seen as obstruction to the success of being ethical in journalism.
However the punishment ranges from suspension of office to imprisonment. A journalist must shun undue influence by people. Acts such as bribery, gratification and demand for “brown envelope” are not the best in the practice. This has been worsened by the biting harsh economic situation in the country.
This is why employers of journalist must pay them enhanced wages while improved welfare packages are provided for them. Regular training of journalists is of great importance as a deliberate effort to enhance their performances on the job. The kind of news that is news must be based on objectivity without bias, contain the necessary facts, and not to cause social and political upheavals.
Such news must encourage human cohesion, human relations, and societal development. Ills of the society must be exposed without sentiments while peace and unity shall be prioritized.
*Chief (Dr.) Onyeneke, KSC, JP, former Imo State Chairman of the NUJ, is Public Relations expert and Public Affairs commentator.
