Ethics

Guidelines for Breaking News Events

Make sound decisions when your community is looking to you for information during disasters and other emergencies.

Guidelines for Airing 911 Calls

What is the journalistic purpose for airing the 911 call? Does using the call help better tell the story in a way that is not sensational? Can the 911 tape illuminate broader issues about the 911 system and its effectiveness? Can using the tape help critically examine the 911 system or help illustrate how effectively the system works? When deciding to use the call, ask yourself these questions about the 911 system.

Guidelines for Amber Alerts

Television and radio stations should provide the information necessary for the safe return of a missing child. News staff should insure information is factual and detailed and carefully evaluate its validity before going on the air. News staff should find answers to the following questions when making decisions to broadcast or stop broadcasting an Amber Alert.

Guidelines for Balancing Business Pressures and Journalism Values

"Professional electronic journalists should gather and report news without fear or favor, and vigorously resist undue influence from any outside forces, including advertisers, sources, story subjects, powerful individuals and special-interest groups." The Radio Television Digital News Association declared this traditional journalistic value when it revised the RTDNA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct in September 2000. Times of economic pressure test that value, challenging journalists to see it anew-and to practice it in new ways.

Guidelines for Covering Funerals

When journalists cover funerals, they must do so with the highest degree of sensitivity and professionalism. Although stories of funerals can be deeply moving, newsworthy and even healing for an audience, there is great potential for journalists to intrude on a family's privacy and cause pain to already vulnerable people.

Guidelines for Covering Bomb Threats

Ask: what is my journalistic duty in reporting this story? What do our viewers need to know? What is the threat to life or property? What are the consequences of the event itself? How significant is the evacuation and the interruption to normal life in your community? What is the impact this event has on law enforcement or emergency crews ability to respond to other calls? What else is this story about? What is the story behind the story? (In some cases, racial slurs and threats have been sprayed on school walls.)

Guidelines for Digital Manipulation

A Statement of Principle on Digital Manipulation from the National Press Photographers Association.

Guidelines for Ethical Promotions

What do you know? What do you need to know? How well do you understand the story? You need to be involved in the discussions and development of the story on the front-end. It is an especially dangerous practice to write and even begin production of promotions before a reporter has begun the work of reporting the story.

Guidelines for Ethical Video and Audio Editing

The public is greatly affected by how you edit sounds and images for radio and television news stories you put on the air. Photojournalists and editors should exercise the same level of ethical professionalism and accuracy in editing sounds and images as reporters and producers are expected to exercise in their choice of words, soundbites and facts.

Guidelines for Evaluating Sources

How does this source know what he/she knows? Can I prove the source's information through government records or other documents? How can I confirm this information through further reporting or other sources?