2. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a voice for journalists and journalism. They are an active
union which aim to protect and promote media freedom, professionalism and ethical standards.
It was founded in 1907 and has over 38,000 members.
The NUJ rules state that ”the union shall consist of journalists, including photographers, creative artists
working editorially in newspapers, magazines, books, broadcasting, public relations and information,
and electronic media; as advertising and fashion photographers, advertising copywriters, editorial
computer systems workers…”
The union has always stood by its journalists based on the NUJ code of conduct and they will support
the members who are going to stand up for ethical rights.
The NUJ have prepared ethical guideline for the members reporting on: terrorism, race, asylum and
immigration, HIV, age, disability and suicide. They also have an ethics hotline which help journalists
and give them advice.
The union is represented in towns and cities all over the UK and parts of Europe who act together to
improve living standards and working lives.
Some of the NUJ members working in magazines, books and PR and Communications don’t necessarily
call themselves journalists, yet are still members within the union.
3. Journalists will often write about groups of people that the audience don’t have experience with
It is important that journalists do not create biased or unhelpful representations of people, especially in
new reporting as there are many groups who can be badly represented in the media.
The NUJ have a range of ethical guidance sheets which the members have to follow when writing about
certain groups of people.
These guidelines are on: Terrorism, Race, Asylum and Immigration, HUV, Age, Disability and Suicide.
The National Union of Journalists code also include a ‘conscience clause’ which states ‘Journalists
should always have the right to refuse assignments that contravene their ethical code; no journalists
should be disciplined or suffer detriment to their careers for asserting their right to act ethically.’
https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/conscience-clause-remains-essential-for-journalists/
They also have a code of practice which has 12 rules that members are expected to follow. These
include such things as:
Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair.
Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies.
Differentiates between fact and opinion.
Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding
consideration of the public interest.
Protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the
course of her/his work. https://www.nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code/
4. They way that language is used in the media can be very powerful as it helps to shape our views, so
journalists must be very careful with the connotations that they use in their work.
A connotation are secondary words that are associated with the primary word, for example. The
connotations of the colour yellow could be warm, sunny and energy.
Using certain words can categorize people and could create a negative representation of them.
Connotations can be described as being either positive or negative regarding to what it’s describing
A connotation can also be something that is suggested or implied by a word or thing. Yet it is not
named or described specifically.
Certain words can carry a cultural meaning, which is why journalists have to be careful in how they
shape the story as these certain words can be seen as harmful to a group of people.
Similar words that mean the same thing are often categorized into negative and positive connotations.
The words childish, childlike and youthful all have the same meaning, yet ‘childish’ and ‘childlike’
refers to someone who is immature, yet ‘youthful’ would describe someone as being upbeat and
energetic.
5. When journalists write, they have to consider all audiences, even though they might have an audience
they want to write to as a range of people will be bound to read their work.
Certain groups will have a different view of the story, based on their own experiences. For example, if a
family had been burgled, they might have a different view on a story about burglary, then a family who
hadn’t been burgled.
Newspapers often write their stories to fit what the audience expect and will cover the story in a
different way to another form of media.
Depending on the story, journalists can change the writing style to cater to the audience they want to
aim at. If they are writing a story on politics, they are more likely to write in a formal manner, as the
type of people who will read the story will most likely be an older audience who is interested in politics,
whereas if they are writing a story about a new fashion trend, they will probably write more informally
as it will be a younger audience who will have an interest in that type of story; although they should be
aware of the type of language they use.
6. Credibility refers to the quality of being trusted and believed in and for journalists, it’s important to be
trustworthy and reliable.
The public rely on journalists to present the information honestly and if they don’t, then it could go
wrong for them as they will have enquiries about the false information.
If journalists have a topic that they want to focus on, then before even writing about the topic, they will
look for evidence to support what they feel and discard the evidence that support the other side. This
work will then be influenced by what the journalist thinks and will not be a fair reading as the public
aren’t able to create their own thoughts and ideas on the subject.
Whilst some journalists believe that this is correct, it is far from reality. Most newspapers have a certain
political agenda which will focus on either the left or right of the political spectrum. For example,
newspapers like The Guardian and The Mirror lean towards the left spectrum, whereas The Telegraph
and Daily Mail lean towards the right.
Editors will read through the stories and select the ones that will match the newspapers political views.
It’s a very bias business.
You can see that the Mirror have
done a story on David Cameron,
making fun of him and because
they are a left wing newspaper
and David is from the
Conservative party which is more
of a right wing newspaper, it
makes sense that they would be
producing a negative article on
him.
7. In order for journalism to be credible, it must also be accurate. Things such as names, dates, times and
quotes must all be correctly gathered as you need to be able to have this as it supports the evidence
you are writing about. They need to report on the correct facts.
If you are reporting on inaccurate evidence and it gets published, you must correct it promptly and you
should also make an apology to the people you have reported on.
If journalists fail to produce an accurate report, it could cause distress to the people that you are
reporting on and could also damage their reputation in their public profile.
If a person thinks that the report isn’t accurate or that they are being treated unfairly, they can
complain to the PCC (Press Complaints Commission) who will investigate the report and if needed, they
can make the publication correct or retract what they have said.
Journalists use ‘a source told us’ as a way of getting around this accuracy. It means that they either
don’t have to find out the relevant information such as a name, or that the source has been asked not
to be named, which they have to take into consideration.
8. One of the most important things for a journalist to do is to be truthful. Presenting the truth is
important as it is a lot more believable as journalism consists of the truth
If journalists present work that it untrue, they could face legal and ethical consequences.
Journalists constantly bend the rules because newspaper want to grab the attention of the audience
and they also want to follow their political views so will do what they can to get their views across.
If journalists are truthful throughout, it makes the public more likely to trust what that journalists is
saying, so when they read a story wrote by that journalist, they will believe that is it true because of the
reputation they have made themselves.
9. A journalists writing should be approached with an open mind and should be non-discriminatory.
You should be able to have both sides of an argument present as this helps the audience to decipher
their own decisions rather than just having the journalists opinion as this doesn’t allow the audience to
form their own opinion which might not be a good thing. This is needed for writing to be credible.
This is often overlooked because newspapers and journalists will stick to what they want you to know
and sometimes don’t like talking about something that they don’t believe in.
Newspapers tend to write stories in a way that would be suited to the audience they are focusing on
and use certain language which will get more people to buy it.
Journalists are required to be on neither side of an argument as they are only allowed to report the
facts and have no comments about the facts that are presented to them.
Some journalists may argue that they should put their opinions in there because they would be doing a
disservice to the public because it fails to identify the truth. News media has become more relevant
over the years which is why journalists are trying to engage audiences across a variety of communities,
so they think that they need to gather more opinions as well as inserting their own, which is wrong.
10. Defamation is a false accusation of an offense or misinterpretation of something that someone has
said or done. It goes against being truthful and accurate and as a journalist, it could lead to a libel
case.
If someone brings a libel action, they will have to prove that the statement has caused or will cause
harm to their reputation but the people who do bring libel do so because the statement has harmed
them.
If the statement is about a business, they will have to provide documentary evidence that will show that
the statement will cause serious financial loss.
The public interest line is often crossed a lot and in these cases, the editors and publishers of the
statement will have to prove that the statement is in the public interest rather than the interest of the
public.
Commonly, the accusation must be false and have been made by someone other than the person they
are accusing. Defamation is treated as a civilly wrong, rather than something that is a crime, although
in other places around the world it could be seen as a criminal offence.
The criminal libel was discarded in 2010, although there are only a few cases in which the criminal libel
law has been applied.
The types of defamation include Slander, which is where a statement has been spoken by somebody
and Libel, where it is defined by written or printed words, pictures and anything else that isn’t through
spoken words and/or gestures.
11. Copyrighting covers the ownership of work that other people have produced and created. Journalists
need to be aware of what they are writing as if they reproduce work which isn’t theirs, they could face
legal action.
They also must not plagiarize because if they steal and publish someone else’s work, it is a seen as a
breach of journalistic ethics and could lead to penalties, suspension and in some cases, removal from
the company.
Copyright is a legal right that was created by the law of a country which grants the creator of original
work full, exclusive rights to the use and distribution of it. However, the rights do not give the creator
total control of their work because there are some limitations that are within the copyright law.
Typically, the duration of the copyright law consists throughout the whole life of the creator, plus 50-
100 years after their death, depending on the creations and what they were used for.
The different types of copyright include Literary, Dramatic, Musical, Artistic, Sound Recording, Film,
Broadcast or Cable programmes and Typographical Work.
The creator of the original piece of work has the right to copy it, issue copies to the public, rent or lend
it to the public, perform it in public, broadcast it or make and arrangement or adaptation of it. If
anyone other than the creator does any of these things without their permission, it is known as
copyright infringement.
12. When journalists are dealing with children and young people under the age of 16, they need to be very
careful in how they deal with the situation. They have to follow the Editors Code of Practice and they
have very clear rules on how it should be handled.
If they are interviewing a child, they must have an adult present with them at all times, as well as
getting consent from them to be able to talk and/or photograph them as part of the child's welfare.
If there happens to be a sex offence case, if the child is under 16, he/she must not be named and
identified and the journalists have to use certain words to make sure that the child is not identified by
that. You must make sure that there isn’t anything that would link a relationship between the child and
the person was has been accused.
You are also not allowed in intrude on certain grounds. If the children are at school, they should be
able to get on with their normal school day without being distracted, as this could cause stress to the
children.
13. Journalists sometimes have to investigate some cases so they can get more information and this can
mean going out to people who are drug dealers or burglars. In this case, the journalists are protected
so they don’t have to reveal their sources and the names of the people who are involved with criminal
activities.
This is stated in the Editors Code of Practice.
Confidentiality is about the expectation you have of someone being able to keep your secrets. The law
states that if a person had obtained information about someone or something in confidence, they must
not take advantage of it unless that person has given you permission to do so. If you do breach this,
then you could be sued.
There are three main areas where confidentiality is very concerning to journalists. State Secrets –
Official Secrets Act, Commercial Secrets – Common Law Confidentiality and Privacy are the three.
There are also three elements of a breech of confidence: the information must have ‘the necessary
quality of confidence’, the information must have been imparted in circumstances imposing an
obligation of confidence and there must be an unauthorised use of that information to the determent
of the party communicating it.
14. The Official Secrets Act is used for legislation that provides protection for the country or state secrets
and information that is related to national security.
It’s very common for journalists to have to sign this act before and after their work that would involve
the access to these secrets.
This act has been used to try and get journalists to reveal their sources.
Journalists need to be very concerned about this as if they reveal any of the state secrets, it can lead to
a criminal prosecution. For example, if they reveal official secrets about military or intelligence
operations.
There are also commercial secrets where people have the right to keep secrets as long as it is not
against the public interest, although some people are not entitled to pass secrets on to others such as
a lawyer or doctor as this could commit a breech of confidence which is a crime.
When journalists sign a document, it is intended as more of a reminder to the person that they are
under such obligations.
15. The Codes of Practice such as the NUJ codes and Editors Code of Practice give journalists certain
guidelines and rules to follow when they carry out their work, as well as telling them how they should
write.
By having these codes, it gives journalists, editors and the public standards to look at if they aren’t
happy with what they have wrote. This is helpful for when something goes wrong.
If someone feels that that a journalist or newspaper as acted inappropriately, they are able to complain
to the IPSO (Independent Press Standards Authority).
The code of conduct include rules such as: Obtaining material by honest means, does not intrude on
anybody’s private life, protects the identity of any sources they receive information from, produce no
material that is likely to lead to hate or discrimination against someone etc.
These rules are very important and must be followed at all costs. If journalists break these rules, as
stated, they will have IPSO to deal with as they are in charge of all complaints that are made by people
and the public. This could lead to a ban from the industry you are with which highly effects your career.
16. The Editors Code of Practice has a section specifically on privacy. It says that it is ‘unacceptable to
photograph individuals in private places without their consent’.
Everyone has the right to have respect for their private family life and if you bare intruding, you must
have the right reasons and justify yourself. If you are photographing people in a private place, it is
unacceptable, unless you have their consent.
In some cases, peoples privacy may be disrupted if the editor can prove that it is in the public interest.
There is a fine line between being in the interest of the public, and being in the public interest and this
is often crossed a lot as journalists and editors find a way around it.
The PCC (Press Complaints Commission) states that if you are entering places like non-public areas of
hospitals, you must identify yourself and get permission from the hospital to enter, although there are
privacy restrictions if you are to ask about certain patients.
There is also a rule that journalists are not allowed to give out or publish anything that has been taken
by hidden cameras or recording devices as well as intercepting phone calls, messages and emails as
this could be private.
17. In the Editors Code of Practice, journalists are not allowed to intrude into something that involves grief
or shock. These cases must be approached with care and sympathy.
All publications could be sensitive in their own way and if you are reporting on a suicide, you must
avoid the details about the method used.
If you are reporting on grief or shock cases, enquiries must be made but with sympathy as it will be a
difficult time for the people involved and it has to be handled in a sensitive way. You are still able to
report on legal proceedings such as inquests.
18. The editors Code of Practice also have a section on harassment. Journalists are not allowed to ‘engage
in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.’ If somebody says that they don’t want to be
photographed then they have to take that into consideration and leave that person alone. They must
stop contacting them.
As with privacy, the line is often crossed along the ‘public interest’ spectrum.
If the person asks you to identify yourself, you must do so as well as who you are representing.
In some cases, who you want to talk to could feel threatened by journalists which could result calling
the police which means that you will have to leave at that point as this is breeching the harassment
clause.
People are allowed to contact IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation) and make a formal
complaint if they feel like the Editors Code of Practice has been breached.
IPSO pass on messages to the editors of a company who’s journalists are harassing someone.
