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Editorial Ethics
Our ethics section examines the professional standards that guide responsible journalism. Explore principles of impartiality, fairness, accuracy, and journalistic integrity while also learning to navigate challenging ethical dilemmas journalists face in their daily work. All our material is free to download, adapt and use.
Accountability for journalists
Every editorial decision is a test of accountability. Learn what that means when covering news, and then apply it to your own reporting.
Conflicts of interest
Public trust is essential for journalistic credibility, but the many potential conflicts of interest journalists face pose a major threat to that trust.
Unconscious bias and journalism
Bias is a prejudice for or against a group, often leading to unfair judgements. While it's a normal human trait, understanding our biases is vital for fairness.
Is your journalism ethical?
Reliable journalism is based on applying strict editorial ethics to all we do so that we can examine the issues that have the most impact on the lives of our audience.
Impartiality in journalism
For journalists, being impartial means presenting information without demonstrating favouritism towards any specific viewpoint or party.
Photojournalism and ethics
The following are commonly accepted ethical guidelines for photojournalists adopted by most mainstream media.
Respecting privacy as a journalist
Journalists must balance privacy rights with the need for rigorous, robust investigation into matters of public interest.
Why editorial ethics are important
The Media Helping Media ethics section is designed to help journalists navigate some of the challenges they might face as they go about their work.
Offence and journalism
Rigorous journalism inevitably offends some audiences. Global broadcasters must cover all aspects of human experience to reflect world affairs accurately.
Accuracy in journalism
Precision is the soul of journalism. Rule one is simple: get it right. If you can't respect the absolute need for accuracy, this isn't the career for you.
Fairness in journalism
Fairness in journalism means exploring all sides of an issue and reporting the findings accurately.
Integrity and journalism
Without integrity your journalism is untrustworthy and suspect. Integrity is essential if a journalist wants to investigate issues, shine a light in dark places, and to dig where others don't.
Related learning resources
Quick Guide: Respecting privacy in news
Journalists must balance privacy with robust public interest reporting. This might require necessary and justified interference to ensure thorough coverage.
Quick Guide: Managing conflicts of interest
Use this checklist to manage conflicts of interest and protect your journalistic integrity. It's designed to maintain audience trust and professional standards.
Quick Guide: Accountability for journalists
Every editorial decision is a test of accountability. Use this checklist to assess your reasoning before you publish or broadcast a news story.
Workshop: Privacy in journalism
Modern journalism must balance public interest and privacy in a 24/7 digital news cycle. Learn how ethical reporters decide what to publish.
Lesson: The importance of editorial ethics
This lesson plan is designed to help journalists understand the importance of applying editorial ethics to their newsgathering and news production.
Lesson: Conflicts of interest in journalism
This lesson plan emphasises the importance of understanding, identifying, and avoiding journalistic conflicts of interest in order to maintain editorial integrity and public trust.
Lesson: Fairness in journalism
Fairness in journalism is the concept of reporting news without bias or prejudice.
Lesson : Respecting privacy as a journalist
This lesson plan is designed to help journalists learn how to respect privacy while also being thorough investigate issues that are in the public interest.
Lesson: Impartiality in journalism
This lesson plan is designed to teach students the importance of impartiality in journalism and the avoidance of bias.
Lesson: Integrity in journalism
This lesson plan teaches students the importance of maintaining integrity in all their dealing in order to investigate issues thoroughly and truthfully without being influenced by external pressures.
Lesson: Offence and journalism
This lesson plan is designed to help students avoid causing unnecessary offence while continuing to produce robust, critical, in-depth journalism.
Module: Editorial ethics for journalists
This module provides an outline for teaching journalism students the importance of editorial ethics.
Module: Ethical scenarios when covering news
This free six-week module is designed to help journalism students recognise and deal with some of the common ethical challenges involved in newsgathering.
Refresher: The importance of editorial ethics for journalists
This intensive day course offers a crucial refresher on the core principles of editorial ethics, which are vital for maintaining public trust in contemporary journalism.
Refresher: Ethical scenarios when covering news
This intensive one-day course looks at some typical ethical considerations faced by journalists when covering a news story.
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The content on Media Helping Media (MHM) is released via Creative Commons BY NC SA 4.0.