Are You Publishing The Truth Or Fueling A Fire?

Over the years, journalism has become a widely desired profession. With that, the need for good and honest journalists has also come around. Ethics are what guide a person to take decisions that are morally correct. Journalism ethics enable a journalist to serve the audience with efficient, accurate and objective news and articles, which in turn will allow the audience to take justified decisions. In a country like India, that is so diverse, respecting everyone’s opinions and beliefs becomes a dire necessity. Fake news and advertisements are flooding the market these days. The consequence of these fake news articles are however, far graver than anybody would have possibly imagined. It leads to riots, murders and the rise of communalism in a said “secular” society.

As the part of the society that serves the people exactly what to think, journalists hold a crucial responsibility of making sure that people make decisions based on facts. A journalist is required to keep in mind five ethical principles before working on or publishing a story. They are: Truth and Accuracy, Independence, Fairness and Impartiality, Humanity and Accountability. One of the cardinal principles that a journalist should hold allegiance to is providing the audience with truth and accurate facts. Printing out a story without having proper evidence reduces the amount of trust the people have in that particular news agency. It also leads to misunderstandings between the different members of the society or political groups.

Another very important factor that a journalist should keep in mind is to be independent of any outside influence. Writing articles on people while having a subjective opinion about them can lead to a matter of misleading the readers. A journalist is required to be open about his/her political leanings or affiliations. Most important of all is a journalist’s willingness to be accountable for the work he produces. If he/she publishes any article or report on the newspaper, or any news medium for that matter, that is factually incorrect or hurts the sentiments of a particular group, the journalist should be ready to apologize and amend his/her mistake. The bigger picture of unethical journalism is the consequence it has on people who take the words written on a newspaper as the gospel truth. It could severely affect the results of a general election, with incompetent politicians being elected to lead the country.

India has a large number of people who are, in some ways, politically illiterate. It is for people like these, that a journalist has to make sure he/she is publishing or reporting news that does not lead them into making wrong decisions at the voting booth. When publishing an article, a journalist should think about whether his/her words are objective in nature. Otherwise, it would lead to the journalist being accused of imposing his views on the public who reads the newspaper. While it is completely alright in a country like India to express one’s opinions and views on any subject, it is highly inappropriate for a journalist to publish it in a newspaper claiming it to be news. “Journalism is about results. It's about affecting your community or your society in the most progressive way”, Anas Aremeyaw Anas. In times like these, journalists need to double check the work they publish as news. In conclusion, a journalist needs to completely understand the impact of his/her words and images on the people of a country, as a whole.