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. Scroll down our site map for all the content in this and other sections.

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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.

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Conflicts of interest

In journalism, public trust is essential for credibility. One of the most significant threats to that trust are the many possible conflicts of interest that might confront journalists.

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Fairness in journalism

Fairness in journalism means exploring all sides of an issue and reporting the findings accurately.

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Photojournalism and ethics

The following are commonly accepted ethical guidelines for photojournalists adopted by most mainstream media.

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Respecting privacy as a journalist

Journalists face a difficult balancing act. They must respect privacy, but they must also investigate issues that are in the public interest.

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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.

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Impartiality in journalism

For journalists, being impartial means presenting information without demonstrating favouritism towards any specific viewpoint or party.

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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.