Ethical Journalism, Bribery and Conflicts of Interest

Jessie Milligan - jm238117@Ohio.edu

                                                       

                                                                Source: The Sun, UK

A journalist pays a police officer for their information on a certain operation, the next time
the officer has information they ask for more money and the journalist obliges. Any ordinary
person can see how this cycle is unfair at best, and corrupt at worst.

However, the Columbia Journalism Review states that one publication in particular does not seem to
understand the gravity of this cycle.
It claims that The Sun has used this exact practice to get multiple sources to give them information regarding
potentially sensitive topics. Specifically police officers who were given hundreds of pounds
to tell about insider information, which other police officers claim was merely gossip. 

So where and how does this practice start? Some claim that this practice begins by paying
non-officials, such as nurses who blow the whistle on nefarious hospitals or nursing homes,
for their information on a corrupt system. If they can get paid for giving out information such
as that, why would they choose to divulge that information to an ethical journalist who
would not pay said whistle blower for their information.

When news sites set up a system like this, no one is willing to inform journalists about a corrupt
system that needs to be reported on, unless it will pad their wallet a little bit. As a journalist,
one must do everything within their power to ensure that their story is pure and untainted
by corruption or self interest. By paying informants and whistle blowers for their information
you lose the essence of what journalism is about, an investigation to find the truth.

The more money you offer a source, the more they will expect the next time for less
information. Regardless of this, bribing or paying a source for information is unethical
as well as goes completely against the core values of journalism. 

This is just one example of a faltering in ethical journalism, an instance of what happens
when journalists cross the line between journalist and subject. Journalists are meant to
view the story as an outsider and report on it as such and when they cross that line
the story gets muddled. 

On the ethical topic of viewing a story and reporting it as an outsider, journalists should
remain an objective viewer to the story they are reporting on, as well as avoid any conflicts
of interests. This includes accepting any speaking engagements that could potentially conflict
with the story you are reporting. A great example of journalistic conflicts of interest can
be seen as a journalist who spoke at two girls memorial despite having only met one of the
girls as a part of a story the journalist was working on. This is a clear violation of journalism
conflicts of interest, specifically because the journalist would not have gotten the respect
of the public had she not been backed by her news site.

This also brings up an interesting point in journalism ethics, one should not post or speak
publicly on anything that would not be considered appropriate in a journalistic sense.
An everyday person would not have the same amount of respect as a journalist, as journalists
are backed by their news source and therefore command a certain amount of trust because
of that news source. This is the exact ethical code that the journalist broke the day she
decided to speak at that memorial.