Journalism And The Law

The Ethics Question

Journalists, to some extent, tend to see the world as one giant X-File, and that “The Truth is Out There.” Finding the truth can sometimes affect others in ways not thought of before. It can affect how the person being written about is seen by the general public.

Ethics are the personal reasons why a story is published or not published, or why a story is written. In some cases, a journalist will hide behind “The People’s Right to Know.” This will not help those people who are hurt by a reporter who uncovers the truth.

One good way to prevent problems with ethics and journalism is to learn how to write well. Good writers can be obvious about their feelings and still be fair to their opponents. Writers have to be careful and correct while at the same time creating interesting arguments. Their views may be unpopular but they keep a widespread audience.

Remember:

No code of ethics will give you an answer to every ethical problem faced.

A code of ethics is a set of rules. These rules are not law, but a personal code which acts like your “writer’s conscience”. It tells you right from wrong. You could ignore it, but that would be bad. No one wants an unethical writer to write about him/her. Why do you think we all look and laugh at the tabloid newspapers? Because the stories are ridiculous and unbelievable.

The newspaper or magazine determines what is right and what is wrong for a writer to do. Just like in some of your schools, students can’t wear hats or chew gum. The rules are there to protect the paper and the writers.

A newspaper that has a certain viewpoint on a standard of ethics and whose reporters make the effort to report accurate and ethical news will be a more respected newspaper.

To make it simple: bad reporting makes a bad paper. If this happens, people won’t respect the newspaper and nobody will want to read it.

Libel and The Art of (not) Getting Sued

Libel is a published false statement damaging to a person’s reputation.
- Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 1990

It is usually said that libellous comments are bad comments which are looked at and published in a permanent form. Newspapers and magazines are permanent and can be looked at over and over again. The same goes for the Internet.

The key to avoiding libel is that you must be able to prove anything you print in a court of law. That’s ANYTHING you print.

Don’t worry, though. If your facts are correct and sources are checked carefully, you won’t have a problem.

Sometimes tough questions have to be asked and need to be answered. This doesn’t mean that you may be sued every time you ask a question or investigate a serious topic. Journalists want to investigate and dig for stories. And remember to HAVE FUN!

Here are some tips:

TRUTH IS YOUR FIRST DEFENCE.

Don’t use second-hand information. You can’t get an accurate story from a friend of a friend of a guy who knows the guy who saw the accident you are reporting on. Get the facts from the source.

If you can’t get an interview with a believable source, that’s fine. You may have to go out and find a corroborating source to back up the previous person’s comments. Even if he/she refuses to comment, put it in the story. Make the refusal of a comment important.

CONSENT IS YOUR SECOND DEFENCE.

Basically, when you do an interview, the person you are talking to will know that their comments are “on the record”. That means that everything that they say is a source of information. He/she will ask to be "off the record” if they do not want their name associated with the information given. “Off the record” is a way of getting the information from the source, without letting your readers know it was him/her. You simply tell the information without attributing the source.

If the information was about the recent cuts to jobs in the government and the source was a minister in the cabinet, you could say “a source said that.....”

If the source says “I don’t care what you print, I didn’t do it”, the source just told you that anything you print is all right with them, so print the story. Record the date, time and place he/she said it, or tape- record it.

Get information or facts from both sides of the story. Balance their opinions in print. If you can, get a source who is an authority on the subject. That gives believability to your story.

FAIR COMMENT IS YOUR THIRD DEFENCE.

Opinion is all right to use if it is not your own. Save personal opinion for an editorial or for entertainment reviews. Another person’s opinion on your subject topic is fine to use even if the comment is a bad one. That’s called fair comment.

Example: If you interviewed someone protesting the prime minister’s decision to cut 25% of all student funding, the protestor could call the PM a “liar.” You could print it under fair comment as it is not your opinion. But make sure you attribute the statement.

PRIVILEGE IS YOUR FOURTH (and last) DEFENCE.

If the information is of public record, like a court case or a meeting of the government, all spoken words are of record and are written down, so you have a right to get information needed.

Copyright

Copyright is a law giving rightful ownership to an original piece of work. These works could be books, movies, songs, essays, articles, letters, or poems. In Canada, original works are usually copyrighted when they have been published, or put in a permanent form for people to see.

Examples: Lucy Maud Montgomery’s book, “Anne of Green Gables,” or the song “Starseed,” by Our Lady Peace.

You must give a reference to people whose work you have put in a story. Creative people want to see that their work is identified as theirs and not someone else’s. How would you like it if someone printed your poem in a paper without putting your name on it? Nobody would know that you wrote the poem, and the person who printed it in the paper would take all the credit for it. Uncool.

Be careful - don’t print that people say, write, or own something when they don’t. You may get into a lot of trouble. Always find out who the correct owner is.

When giving reference to someone’s work, include the following:

The name of the writer, composer, artist, or owner.

The title of the article, album, picture, or other work.

The publishing or production company, or record label.

I’m riding down the street / I see a girl I’d like to meet / She looks my way, and I almost fall off my bike.

“I Hit A Tree”
Dave & The Bike Spokes
RubberTire Records ©1996

When doing a review, only use what you need to make your point. It would be silly to write out an entire song or a whole paragraph of an article because it’s just too long for people to read.

Copyright protects your published news stories, too, by preventing others from copying the writing or opinions in your article. However, information or ideas cannot be copyrighted, so it does not stop anyone from ever using that idea for another story . Other reporters can write news stories with the same topic, except they get their own quotes from other sources, or even interview the same sources you used.

Example: When the space shuttle, Challenger, exploded during takeoff, everyone did stories about it, because it was important news. Most stories had similar information, only written differently.

If you copy part of an article, use pictures, or download sound or video clips that you find on the Internet, e-mail the web page owner and ask to use it. As a reporter, it would be smart for you to do this, just so you don't get into any trouble later. A page owner may have gotten an article from someone else, so make sure you get the real owner of the article and the real page it came from. If you have your sources covered, you should be safe from most legal matters. Don’t take every bit of news you get from the Net as the truth, though. Anyone could say that a buffalo ran through Main Street but it doesn’t mean that it really happened. Check your facts and ask more people about it, so you get more than just one person telling you what happened but several sources giving a viewpoint. Readers will believe it if you back it up with truthful sources.