Fr Liam Power: Ethics in journalism - appraising the local media

The Decree on the Media of Social Communications was one of the first documents to be published at the Second Vatican Council. It highlights the importance the Council fathers attached to journalism. The document recognised the great responsibility of the media as they have the power to direct humankind along a good path or an evil path by the information they impart. 

The teaching is in continuity with the earlier publication of the encyclical Peace On Earth by Pope John XXIII in which he endorsed the right to freely investigate the truth and for people to receive accurate information about public events. The encyclical also asserts the right to freedom of speech and publication but within the limits of the moral order and the common good.

The Church endorses the freedom of the press and recognises the vital role it plays in a democratic society, speaking truth to power and holding political leaders and other authority figures accountable. Associations of Journalists, such as the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) hold that journalists have “a duty to report independently, to publish the most accurate and comprehensive truth on matters of public interest, and to report independently without fear or favour”. 

But the NUJ, SPJ, and other professional associations also publish restraining principles calling on journalists to use their freedom to publish in a responsible manner. These principles are incorporated in the Code of Ethics, which is binding on all journalists. The fundamental principle of this code is to minimise harm to vulnerable subjects of stories, such as traumatised people.

The Code of Ethics adopted by the NUJ expects that journalists should obtain material by “honest, straightforward and open means”. The technique of ‘doorstepping’, whereby a journalist, armed with a microphone and recorder, confronts somebody unexpectedly to ask pointed questions, violates this principle. According to the code, doorstepping should only be used when conventional methods (emails, calls, formal requests) have been repeatedly ignored. 

People’s right to privacy must be respected and must be balanced against the public’s right to be informed about a particular issue.

The code does allow for exceptions that are overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means. But the person’s right to refuse to comment must also be respected, particularly if the issue is a particularly sensitive one. 

To repeatedly question someone after they have refused to comment and to continue to pursue them is rightly condemned. Also, doorstepping, which is designed to humiliate rather than inform, is deemed to be highly unethical.

The local print media, the Waterford News and Star and the Munster Express, do not generally resort to such unethical practices.

Doorstepping risks sensationalising a story, another technique which violates journalism ethics. Sensationalising a story involves exaggerating or emphasising shocking or emotional elements of the story to attract greater audience engagement, whether in print or other media. Such a practice can easily distort the truth by emphasising one particular aspect and avoiding context, which could put a completely different spin on the story. 

By oversimplifying complex issues, the approach can easily result in biased coverage. By prioritising the emotional impact, sensationalism can cause great harm as principles of journalistic ethics, such as compassion and empathy, are jettisoned. This is particularly true when sensationalist journalism intrudes into the privacy of personal tragedies and situations of grief and loss, often without consent.

Readers can judge whether or not some elements of local media are prone to sensationalising stories.

In the sensitive area of child sex abuse, the local media may be commended for calling to account institutions such as the Church, the HSE, Tusla and An Garda Síochána for failure to respond to crimes of child sex abuse. But here again, journalism ethics urges heightened sensitivity when dealing with victims of such crimes.

The NUJ calls for great caution here as there is always a risk of retraumatising a victim. 

Take for example a situation whereby an alleged victim reports abuse to An Garda Síochána. The DPP decides not to prosecute as there is not enough evidence to obtain a conviction. The alleged abuser is afforded by the media an opportunity to protest their innocence. 

The protestations of innocence by the alleged abuser criminalises, in the public view, the alleged victim as they are effectively being accused of false allegations which is a criminal offence. If the alleged abuser is convinced of their innocence, they would be better served by bringing their case to the criminal court rather than being allowed to resort to a sensationalist interview.

I think readers would agree that the local print media have respected that exigency of caution in this regard.

It is to be hoped that all branches of our media will honour the standards, enviable in the current global context, which pertain in our country.