notTV Blog

Source : RTNDA

Guiding Principles:

Journalism’s obligation is to the public. Journalism places the public’s interests ahead of commercial, political and personal interests. Journalism empowers viewers, listeners and readers to make more informed decisions for themselves; it does not tell people what to believe or how to feel.

Ethical decision-making should occur at every step of the journalistic process, including story selection, news-gathering, production, presentation and delivery. Practitioners of ethical journalism seek diverse and even opposing opinions in order to reach better conclusions that can be clearly explained and effectively defended or, when appropriate, revisited and revised.

Ethical decision-making – like writing, photography, design or anchoring – requires skills that improve with study, diligence and practice.

The RTDNA Code of Ethics does not dictate what journalists should do in every ethical predicament; rather it offers resources to help journalists make better ethical decisions – on and off the job – for themselves and for the communities they serve.

See more at: http://www.rtdna.org/content/coverage_guidelines/

Source: RTNDA

The following standards should be applied to content-related decisions on air and online:

• News operations should not show favoritism to advertisers. It should be clear to all advertisers that they have no influence over news content.
• Professional electronic journalists should expose unethical or illegal business practices, but should not target businesses unfairly.
• Content should be generated based on journalistic merits and not solely as an advertising vehicle.
• The most important professional responsibility of an electronic journalist is to report the news. Everything else comes second.
• News directors should carefully consider instances when ratings and demographics drive coverage decisions and ensure that news coverage remains journalistically sound and serves the public interest.
• News organizations should protect the integrity of coverage against any potential conflict of interest arising from station owners’ commercial or other interests.
• Coverage of a promotional or commercial event that an advertiser or station sponsors should be proportional to the event’s newsworthiness.
• Stations or networks should foster a high degree of communication, collaboration, respect and trust among station leaders and staff members. Business-side managers should be encouraged to understand that journalistic independence and credibility are among the station’s most precious commodities.
• News directors should insist that newsroom employees do not accept gifts, favors or other compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage.
• A news operation’s online product should clearly separate commercial and editorial content and maintain the same high journalistic and ethical standards as the on-air product.
• Professional electronic journalists should tell their audiences why and how they made decisions, especially if the public might perceive that journalistic independence has been compromised.

See more at: http://www.rtdna.org/content/coverage_guidelines/