Ethics in Journalism – Self-Censorship
This is Part 6 in an 11 Part Series Examining Journalistic Ethics.
ALLIANCE – There are times when a reporter begins researching, interviewing and investigating an article without knowing what the results of the article will be. There are other times a reporter thinks the results will go one way, and they do. Then there are times a reporter expects the investigation to go one way, and when it goes the other. The reporter then may exercise self-censorship
Self-censorship is something a reporter must exercise once in a while. When it regards cases of libel, invasion of privacy or releasing classified documents a reporter should probably exercise self-censorship.
If the reporter self-censors because the results of an investigative article were not what the reporter expected, it may have crossed an ethical line.
For this part of the series on journalist ethics, I must use myself as an example. I cannot vouch for anyone else on this issue, but it occurs more often than it should.
People in my town talk about how hard it is to build here, and complain that it is hard to get a contractor willing to work in city limits.
I sought out to find out more about this so I could explain it to local residents. It turned out, all of the contractors I interviewed, with the exception of one, said they had no reservations about working in town.
Some of those interviewed did say there were more permits needed and regulations to follow, but not enough so it made it difficult to build in city limits.
I set out to explain why it is more difficult to build in town, but my investigation, research and interviews produced results I did not expect.
If I planned to write this article leaning toward a certain agenda, the results showed the opposite of what I thought they would. If I then put the article away and did not publish it, I am censoring myself so I do not push against my own agenda.
Since the information I obtained showed it was only slightly more of an inconvenience to perform construction in town that is what I reported. I did not get the results I expected, but I ran the article anyway. I did not change anything to make the story say what I thought it would say. I ran an article about how it was not really much harder to work in city limits. That is what I found, so that is what I reported.
Results of investigations, interviews, data studies and more may not yield the results the reporter expected. If the reporter does not publish the article for this reason, that reporter crossed an ethical line in order to push their own personal opinion.
Reporters should report the truth. Reporters should report the facts. A reporter should never change results or dismiss the article all together because it does not reflect their own feelings.
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 1 of 11 – Personal Opinions
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 2 of 11 – Statistics and Number
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 3 of 11 – Political Affiliation
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 4 of 11 – Fabrication and Manipulation
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 5 of 11 – Attribution and Plagiarism
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 7 of 11 – Data and Information Sources
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 8 of 11 – Use of first person
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 9 of 11 – Favors, Gifts and Financial Gain
Journalistic Ethics Series Article 10 of 11 – Reviews and Giving Orders