Spj Code Of Ethics

The press has an important role to play in helping the public get information about events happening in the society and the Operation of government institutes. In Canadian Broadcasting Corp. v. New Brunswick (Attorney General), Nemetz C.J. said that Journalists and news organizations collect and disseminate these information, keeping members of society fully informed about the issues closely related with their lives and wellbeing (Canadian Broadcasting Corp. v. New Brunswick, [1996]). The function of information is illustrated by Harold Winter in his book, he said that compared with decisions made in a perfect information world, people who living in a poorly informed world can only make less good decisions and these decisions can cause really

Disclose unavoidable conflicts … Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; do not pay for access to news. Identify content provided by outside sources, whether paid or not … Deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.’ (SPJ Code of Ethics, 2014) However, in the real life, if journalists make payment to source to get the information they need, some sorts of contracts are concluded between the two, and there is no way that the journalists can ‘act independently’ like it is described in the SPJ Code of Ethics. Also, it is difficult for journalists to keep neutrality with money or gifts being offered by them to the story teller. Louis A said that: ‘Paying interviewees and sources, some say, may well taint the quality the quality of the information because of the economic motives involved. check-book journalism also raises questions about journalistic independence because an economic investment in information may elevate it to a position of unjustified prominence relative to other sources of information.’ (Day, 2005) They might expect more detailed and exciting information from sources, so that they can write a better report; their attitudes

Ward said that ‘Objective ethical principles are based on nothing more—and nothing less—than intersubjective agreement obtained from rational, public deliberation, in light of common purposes, values, and facts’ (Ward, 2005). In most circumstances, journalists who write their sources a cheque have already got the permission of the news organizations they work for and always get the organizations’ financial support. So it is technically the news organizations who pay the cheque. Although the information is collect for the public to keep people well-informed, these news press will inevitably see the information as their own property because of the payment they made. ‘Journalism is not concerned with reporting objective things, rather it is about reporting significant things objectively. This insight indicates why even a sympathetic treatment of the correspondence theory of truth will not serve to ground journalistic objectivity’ (Fox, 2013). This means that journalist and news organizations are hardly likely to be objective and neutral when editing and providing the stories, and we have to admit the conflict of interests exists where cheque-book journalism takes