Revisiting the journalistic code of ethics

Mr. Ransford Tetteh, Ghana Journalists Association President

One will not fall prey to contradiction if he or she asserts that news people today are better educated and better trained than ever before; that the public is better informed and better served than it was even a decade ago; that the media world-wide are more responsible and more responsive to public needs than ever before.

Despite all these, there is plenty of evidence around that the media of Ghana are undergoing credibility crisis. Journalism has declined in public esteem. The public questions the believability of newspapers, magazines, and broadcast news. There is obvious public dissatisfaction with the performance of the media in our increasingly multifarious society.

The public perception is that journalists are often arrogant, irresponsible, unfair, biased and unethical and that they have no standards. Are these perceptions real? Can anyone blame the public for these perceptions? I think your guess is as accurate as mine.

I stand for correction, but I think it is either the lack of understanding or reporters' failure to appreciate the essence of good ethical practices that has brought journalism in Ghana this negative far. I must admit that we have made some progress, compared to other developing and even some developed countries, but is that the best we can do as journalists?

Many journalists fail to realize that the newsroom is the ethical heart of every media organization and what comes out of it goes a long way to affect individuals and society as a whole.

In an attempt to correct practices that undermine the integrity of the profession, media practitioners, including the Ghana Journalist Association, have developed codes or code of conduct that guides their day-to-day activities.

Some of these include the need to take into consideration public interest, honesty and integrity, fairness, accuracy and truth, balanced reporting and the need to respect the privacy and dignity of individuals among others.

My question is 'how many journalists in today's Ghana can boast of working with these values in mind'? Before I continue, I wish to suggest that the GJA should, as a matter of urgency, redistribute its code of ethics free of charge to all members of the Association.

A renowned communication expert, E. Anim, agrees that the objective of setting up a newspaper by government is centered on the need to use the newspaper as an instrument of nation building or communal harmony as well as for disseminating information about government programmes, actions and activities.

A. Hester also believes that the commercial press systems of the world mostly have as their primary goal, the making of money for their owners. The choice and display of news stories is therefore predominantly based on what will increase street sales of the paper. These statements are true and can hardly be disputed but it is 'more true' that these objectives can easily be achieved without resorting to 'dirty journalism'.

ETHICS CODE
Ideally, once we decide on what our values are, we embrace guidelines for behaviour that will help us reach those values. Those values become our Ethics code which governs what we are willing to and what we are unwilling to do. Ethics should not be something we occasionally think about and then toss into a dark closet.

Instead, we use them every day to help us honour and attain our values. Therefore if we have accepted to be journalists, we must not see journalistic ethos as a distant goal but as a part of our daily life and work. Among the most important rewards for good ethical behaviour is the deep satisfaction of doing the right thing. Virtue, they say, is its own reward.

This series is intended to create awareness on the need for Ghanaian journalists to see ethics as a cardinal principle that should not be ignored in the practice of their profession. I am writing this article without reference to any media house or any specific publication because I know readers are fully aware that from our TV stations to the radio stations, the newspaper houses to the internet sites, journalistic ethics has been relegated to the background.

Otherwise how can I deliberately publish false information about my colleague or opponent with the utmost intention of coming out to apologize after the story has sent his dignity to the baths? Both the private and state-owned media houses are guilty of this journalistic blunder.

PRIVACY INDIVIDUALS
In this first publication, I wish to concentrate on the issue of PRIVACY OF INDIVIDUALS as a major ethical issue that journalists must consider in deciding the kind of news items to publish. The issues of balanced reporting, honesty and integrity, fairness, accuracy and truth, and the almighty 'deliberate publishing of false news', are better left for another day.

Any journalist who is sensitive to human suffering will feel special agony many times during news reporting when he or she drags into the public spotlight an individual who doesn't want to be there or when he or she pokes his or her intrusive reporter's notebook or camera into an embarrassing dark corner of someone's private life.

The rationale may be 'it is news' or 'the public has the right to know' but will that make the journalist feel much better after seeing in the eyes of a new widow the pain caused by that probing question at the terrible moment in her life? This is not to say that journalists must not report crimes committed by public officials or private individuals who hide under the guise 'privacy of individuals' and commit crimes.

The concept of a right to privacy draws a line between the individual and the collective, between the self and society. In this situation, the individual is assured of a zone in which he or she can be an individual, not a member of the community. In this zone, he can think his own thoughts, have his own secrets, live his own life and reveal only what he wants to the outside world. The fact is that there are legal requirements that protect the privacy of individuals but these alone are inadequate to protect the individual's privacy to the fullest.

Dan Byron, an acclaimed American media Lawyer, during a visit to the School of Communication Studies in 2008, suggested that Ghanaians could use some aspects of the American legal system in defense of journalists accused of violating media law. I said to myself that 'this idea is good'. On the contrary, a good legal system such as that of America will rather expose most of the Ghanaian Journalists to prosecution since some of them wouldn't do the right thing.

I even believe Mr. Byron would have become fed up with Ghanaian journalist if half of his 45 years of working to defend journalists had been spent in Ghana. The reality is that most private facts committed to public records remain unknown to society unless publicized by the media. Lawyers may rest easier if their clients (journalists) rely on public records for their stories but morality (ethical consideration) is still needed to balance against the possible harm that will accrue under such circumstances.

A few ethical issues will cause one more difficulty than the 'godlike' attempt to balance the individual's right to balance the individual's right to privacy, the right to be left alone, against the journalist's responsibility to inform readers and viewers about matters in which they have justifiable news interest.

It must however not be forgotten that the spirit of trust between the journalist and the media public is eroded seriously by the public's perception that the media carelessly invade people's privacy in search of exciting stories that sell their papers. Journalists must therefore try their best to use ethics in striking a balance between the people's right to privacy and the issue of public interest.

TRUTH
The truth; No thinking person will dare say that practicing ethical journalism is very easy. But the rewards of ethical behaviour are substantial. Journalists can attain those rewards by constantly examining our ethics codes and how well our actions live up to our high standards.

Sometimes our only reward will be the satisfaction of knowing that we analyzed a tough situation and followed the most ethical course of action. We must bear in mind that in our professional lives as journalists, the penalties of unethical behaviour can be very substantial, leading to loss of profits, jobs, etc.

UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR
For the media practitioner, unethical behaviour can mean the loss of credibility, which is one of our most valuable possessions. Examining the ethics and values of our profession, as well as those of other important publics at every stage of the journalism process can help one achieve ethical values-driven journalism.

It is difficult to write about ethics without sounding preachy, but ethical behaviour is indispensable in journalism. For our society, for our organizations, for our important audience/publics, and for ourselves, we should strive for nothing less because an organization's good standing depends on its acting in an ethical manner and it is judged on how ethical its publics perceive it to be.

Source: btlarweh.wordpress.com