Ethical Dilemmas

Bias is taking one side of the story and writing it in your own point of view. It might offend others or distort the truth by sending a wrong impression to the public. There are multiple sides to a story and all should be shown as much as possible. An example is when a boy accidentally trip and fall onto a taller boy causing both of them to fall and hurt themselves. A witness at the scene had to retell it to a teacher. The witness is a good friend of the boy who trip and the witness was standing at some distance away when the accident happened and was unsure about what had really happened. Thus the witness told the teacher that the taller boy purposely stuck up his leg to trip the other boy but he himself fell too because he was unbalanced. The witness could have told the teacher that he was not clear of what had happened. A journalist should always remain neutral to ensure that the story is fair.

Conflict of interest happens when a journalist is involved in multiple interest. The journalist might be influenced by it and thus the article written by the journalist will not be accurate. An example is when there is a train breakdown in the morning and caused inconvenience to many people. The CEO of the company is being interviewed by a journalist and the journalist is the CEO’s best friend. The CEO might take advantage of it by asking the journalist to cover up by putting the blame on other people and not the company. When this happens, the truth will be distorted. A journalist should have integrity, and to avoid the same scenario, the journalist should pass the work to his colleagues.

Commitment to accuracy is ensuring that whatever information that is written in the article is correct. It can be done by ensuring that the source of information is reliable and accurate. People are often searching for information online, but the it is not always accurate as it is what other people had written. An example is when a journalist is interviewing someone about a car accident. However the interviewee was not at the scene and had just happened to pass by after the accident had occurred. The interviewee might just tell the journalist what he heard from other people or thought what had happened. It will be more accurate if the journalist witness the scene from a CCTV.