Blurred Lines and Reporting the Truth

Amber Phipps 

ap836419@ohio.edu

With the rise of activist movements and the desire to change the ways of our country, it becomes a challenge when reporting on these controversial moments. Change is constantly occurring within the workings of a country fighting for equality and transparency. While we fight for peace, these challenges create ethical dilemmas within news and reporting. The dilemmas that appear as a result of laws and regulations put in place by states and local enforcements make it difficult to determine what should and should not be published. How does one report without violating the privacy of those that risk their lives to join the fight? 

As a photojournalist, truth and transparency should be amongst the most important aspects of this position. During such events as rioting and protests for justice, it can be important to capture these real moments of human activism. Reporters should have the obligation to capture these raw events for what they are without altering any images or creating wrongful accusations. While this might sound simple, the question arises when state laws against protesting interfere with the freedom of activism for justice. 

Reporting further extends towards the protection of privacy for individuals participating in protests that have the risk of arrest or being fired from their jobs. There becomes the obligation to prevent invading the privacy of others, especially when their lives are on the line. Except where is the balance between these two aspects of truth reporting and privacy? Blurring faces and altering photos simply won't do.

Source: Document Journal

When reporting these innately human events, it becomes increasingly important to get permission from those being photographed to prevent any disclosure issues from arising down the road. Blurring faces from pictures can be argued as potentially unethical since the photos are being altered, making them untrue, and it takes the humanness from the events being displayed in the news. Getting to the source of who's in the photo to request permission is the best thing that can be done to avoid these unethical dilemmas. 

Blurring the faces of those in protests removes so much of the human connection from the photos and the story being told. How can the reader connect to these moments without the ability to see and feel the emotion displayed on the faces of protestors? Ethical reporting goes beyond simply reporting the event but capturing the moment in its entirety, which includes the faces of those making history.