journalism codes of conduct

1. NUJ Presentation
Shania Carter

2. Social and Cultural Awareness
When writing about ethnic and social groups of people readers don’t understand or have not
had experience, journalists must take into consideration how they explain the backgrounds of
these groups to the readers so thus to create a balanced picture of how the reader feels
about them. Negative and bias inputs from journalists would have a bad impact from the
readers point of view so therefore good piece of factual writing must be balanced, not
hypocritical nor judgmental.
The NUJ or National Union of Journalists has created a series of guidelines that each journalist
should follow in order to be successful, these guidelines also make sure that the writers and
public’s interest are always best.

3. NUJ Guidelines
The NUJ guidelines as mentioned before are to keep the journalist’s best interests at
heart, so therefore keeping them from not writing anything out of order particularly
when writing about subjects that may effect individuals and the public as a whole
including racism, immigration and mental health. Here are some examples of guidelines
from the NUJ website (https://www.nuj.org.uk/site-search/?keywords=guidelines)
Race reporting:
• Only include a person’s race if relevant. Check that you have it right. Would you mention race if the person was white?
• Avoid words that, although common in the past are now considered offensive e.g. half-caste and colored. Ask people how they
define themselves.
• Do not assume a cultural background from a person’s name – check with them or their community.
• Strive for diversity and balance in reporting especially in social issues. Investigate the treatment and cover experiences of Black
people.
• Remember that Black communities are culturally diverse. Get a full and correct view from representative organisations.
• Exercise care, balance and proportionality when covering race relations issues.
• Do not allow letters or online comments to be published or allow phone- ins to continue that contain racist hate speech.
Immigration reporting:
• Use the term “immigrant” with caution, it is still wrongly used to describe people born in Britain. Asylum seeker, refugee or EU
migrant worker? Asylum seeker is a person who has left their home country as a political refugee and is seeking asylum in
another country.
• When quoting politicians or public figures, verify if their statements on immigration are factual. Ask experts who can help set
the context and ensure you check details with a reputable source.
• Don’t use emotive, value-laden language such as “floods of immigrants”.

4. NUJ Code Of Conduct
The National Union of Journalists enforces a code of conduct which is 12 guidelines long, these guidelines are for every journalist to
follow when they sign up with the NUJ, these rules are clear instructions to aid and construct around journalists writing, an example
of these 12 guidelines are a journalist:
1. At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public
to be informed.
2. Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair.
3. Does his/hers utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies.
4. Differentiates between fact and opinion.
5. Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of investigations that are both overwhelmingly
in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means.
6. Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public
interest.
7. Protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the course or his/hers work.
8. Resists threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or suppress information and takes no unfair personal advantage of
information gained in the course of his/hers duties before the information is public knowledge.
9. Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed,
legal status, disability, material status or sexual orientation.
10. Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance endorse by advertisement any commercial product or service save for the
promotion of his/hers own work or the medium by which she/he is employed.
11. A journalist shall normally seek the consent of an appropriate adult when interviewing or photographing a child for a story
about her/his welfare.
12. Avoids plagiarism.

5. Connotation
Connotation is the act of something suggested or implied by a word or thing, rather than being explicitly named or described i.e.
“religion” has always had a negative connotation for me. For journalists the NUJ would rather prefer that a correct term was being used
rather than being marginalized, for example when talking about a disability, they would be described as a wheelchair user rather than
wheelchair bound as this sounds like stereotyping.
Another example of a negative connotation are the words ‘childish’ and ‘childlike’ these refer to an immature behavior of a person
whereas, youthful implies that a person is lively and energetic. A few more examples of connotation in the English language include:
• A dog connotes shamelessness or an ugly face.
• A dove implies peace.
• Home suggests family, comfort and security.
• Politician has a negative connotation of wickedness and insincerity while statesperson connotes sincerity.
• Pushy refers to someone loud-mouthed and irritating.
• Mum and Dad when used in place of mother and father connote loving parents.
One of the most common objectives of a journalist is to write news stories on the elderly community. Journalists have to be careful on
what a personal statement is and a generalized statement like the terms ‘grandma’ and ‘granddad’ as this might not be necessarily true.
Same goes for writing about the younger generation, as we don’t want to categorize or confine them into being ‘thugs’ as then it is
classed as being disrespectful to the age group whereas the appropriate words would be ‘youngsters’ or ‘student’.

6. Alternative Readings
If writing for a tabloid or a broadsheet paper, each audience is most likely going to be specific, but it has to be taken into consideration
that anyone can pick up the newspaper and read it, this is why a journalist has to take precautions in writing something that is fair,
balanced and unbiased. Therefore every piece of writing that is based on cultures, ethnicity or age is essentially appropriate for all
audiences.
For example when reporting on age differences between the elderly and the young, the story must tell both sides and not consider any
conflict or inclination of major bias as everything written down should be a correct evaluation of any events that the story may be
about. If the journalist was to be all of the things above this could be a cause of friction between reader and journalist as well as more
friction between the two existing age groups.
It is more obligatory than essential to make sure that facts and personal information (if necessary) is fully correct and understood by the
journalist, as from a journalist point of view and a reader point of view no one wants any problems to arise especially when wanting to
attract all types of audiences.

7. Credibility
Credibility’s definition is how reliable or trustworthy a source is, with this case it’s the news stories and reports we see on
television and in the newspaper.
If a story is not seen as credible so not reliable or trustworthy then the whole company could lose it’s value along with the
reputation of the journalists that have been serving long term. An example of a newspaper losing its credibility is the Sun’s
reporting on the Hillsborough Disaster where most of the sources were not truthful or reliable in terms of the ‘sources’ they
gathered were lies so that was untrustworthy.
There are a few considered ‘rules’ for being a credible journalist such as:
• Focusing on the objective
• Focusing on the accuracy
• Focusing on the truthfulness
• How fair and balanced a story is

8. Objective
Everybody has an objective in life, for journalists the objective is to equally distribute unbiased and unprejudiced facts or chunks of
information that won’t offend or discriminate anyone and won’t destroy the main objective.
Journalists have agendas that the public may or may not agree with, and therefore they will look for evidence to back up that agenda to
then produce the work, this work may or may not have an independent view however the targeted audience will be reliant on the
journalists’ evidence and factuality.
Most newspapers have political agendas such as left wing and right wing, the left wing side has positive enforcements on people who
may not be able to support themselves and therefore look into the positive effects the NHS has and the benefits of job seekers
allowance. The right wing side is the polar opposite, focusing on individual survival and economic freedom.
An example of this is that the BBC had an objective of displaying negative comments and articles about former Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher a day after she died. The articles showed all the things she did and said wrong, demoralizing some of our society, the articles
and the BBC were branded as ‘terrifically biased’. Many of the public were revelling in the loss but the BBC however commented:
“The news website displayed a section of ‘recent stories’ chosen by an editor and the ‘controversy’ over the cost of her funeral was ‘the
top story at the time’. A variety of news stories about Baroness Thatcher, exploring a number of angles and featuring a range of voices
and opinions, have been displayed on the home page throughout the day.”
Through research of related stories on the BBC it is clear that many sports editors were left wing about her death and also the things
she didn’t do for this country. It is also apparent that her death fell days before the Hillsborough remembrance and that many clubs
weren’t going to hold a minutes silence, it seemed that these were independent views on this behalf and the whole political party.

9. Accurate
The accuracy of dates, times, names and all other data is very important within reports and other news stories so that the writing is
one hundred per cent correct, otherwise it won’t be accurate enough to publish. The failure to comply with having the correct
information can be very distressing to individuals, teams and groups of people, furthermore cases of libel may follow up if false
allegations are made against a person or people.
An example of inaccurate publishing is the Sun newspaper as it published false allegations about Liverpool fans being ‘drunk and
ticketless thugs’ in the event of the tragic Hillsborough Disaster, the evidence from this was later found out from doctored police
reports and the lies from Baroness Thatcher, decades later, the paper apologized profusely for their inaccurate printing, with
Liverpool fans boycotting the paper and the paper is also still banned today in Merseyside.
Further research into the Press Complaints Commission shows the codes of practice for accuracy and intrusion into grief or shock,
the points are:
• The press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures.
• A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion once recognized must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence
and – where appropriate – an apology published.
• A publication must report fairly and accurately the outcome of an action for defamation to which it has been a party, unless an
agreed settlement states otherwise or an agreed statement is published.
• In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion and publication
handled sensitively. This should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings, such as inquests.

10. Truthful
It is essential that every journalist and news story is truthful when it comes to any article as they are dependent on portraying facts,
the truthfulness within a news story is important because it has the ‘power’ to change someone’s opinion on a particular subject or
person.
Truthfulness by journalists can be broken easily by writing fake news stories or copying from parody sites. One of the fake parody
stories was that the IPhone 5 would have a hologram keyboard and projector. The feature was picked up by FOX news, the story
following declared that the whole idea came from a fake video and that it wasn’t a hoax to suck in journalists but mocked up by an
animation studio.
Another example of a fake story is from the People’s Daily online, the Chinese state government newspaper, accepting from an
onion report that Kim Jong-Un had been named ‘The Sexiest Man Alive’ for 2012 claiming that his ‘devastatingly handsome, round
face, his boyish charm and his strong sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heart throb is every woman’s dream come true.” the
mistake was later discovered and was taken down off the website. The internet then caught the tail-end of the story with pranksters
voting in the Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year in which the Korean leader won.
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/5_best_fake_news_stories_of_the_year/

11. Fair and Balanced
With every news story written it is very important that it is open, honest, unbiased and non-discriminatory.
When writing about two groups of people or individuals there must always be a counter argument to explain and show both
sides, the counter argument lets readers decide which ‘side’ they want to be on as their opinion of presented upon facts from
the journalist.
This can be overlooked sometimes by journalists, an example of left-wing and right-wing sided newspapers, however writing
about an emotive subject can produce more sales and more credits for the newspaper and the journalist covering the
subject.
The NUJ code of conduct, rule 9 suggests that a journalist ‘produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on
the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, material status or sexual orientation.
For example, there are seven parties all wanting to be in parliament, the news then have to run fair stories on each of the
parties as the public need to decide based upon facts who they want to elect, this way when running a news story every
candidate has a balanced argument and a fair point rather than being biased towards one politician because of they way their
newspaper is run i.e. left wing or right wing.

12. Legal Obligations
Defamation is one of the key things to think about as a journalist when considering legal obligations in work.
The definition of defamation is – any intentional false communication, either written or spoken that harms a person’s reputation;
decreases the respect, regard or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile or disagreeable opinions or
feelings against a person. Defamation may be a criminal or civil charge. It encompasses both written statements known as libel
and spoken statements called slander.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/defamation
An example of defamation in UK newspaper’s is when comedian Frankie Boyle claimed £50,400 in damages after being found in
court that the Daily Mirror had wrongly libeled him by calling him a “racist comedian”. The comedian said that the newspaper had
“misunderstood” the context of his jokes, he also said that he had ‘actively campaigned’ against racism. The court also offered
him another £4,250 after the jury found that he was forced to quit his weekly panel show Mock The Week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20033097
Slander is used around most cases in the UK, however it may just be a comment and not intent on being malicious. For example,
when football managers are in their press conferences they use the term ‘slander’ lightly as they deem to orally harm another
manager’s reputation.

13. Copyright
The definition given to copyright is; the exclusive and assignable legal right given to the author for a fixed number of years to print,
publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic or musical material. Breaking copyright law is reproducing the material without
permission of the author or originator, journalists can also be under suspect of plagiarizing work as this could lead to copyright
infringement.
Some of the ways to avoid copyright and be careful around plagiarism is firstly to make it your own:
• Be familiar with the subject written, research your own information and not copy sentences word for word
• If chance, make a bibliography of all quotes and sources used, this covers all copyright infringement and any other charges around
this that could be put against you.
One case of copyright is between Vanilla Ice, David Bowie and Queen, the overall case was the hit Ice Ice Baby released in 1991, the
song sampled but did not credit ‘Under Pressure’ by David Bowie and Queen. Facing a lawsuit by both parties the artist – Vanilla Ice
confessed to sampling the work. The outcome of this particular case was settled privately however the sum given to Bowie and Queen
has been undeclared and also credited them both on the song.

14. Children and Young Persons
Dealings with minor children, particularly in their welfare should be handled carefully, there are strictly some rules that every
journalist must adhere to.
From the National Union of Journalists there are a couple of points relevant to this concern; journalists must protect the identity of
sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the course of their work – I feel this is relevant because
children may speak to the press in confidence without wanting to be named, especially if they have been a victim of a criminal case.
One of the other rules from the NUJ states that “a journalist shall normally seek the consent of an appropriate adult when
interviewing or photographing a child for a story about her/his welfare.”
https://www.nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code/
On another website - http://ethicnet.uta.fi/cyprus/journalists039_code_of_practice under rule 11 it states “functionaries of the
media, as a rule, may not interview or photograph children under 16 in connection with matters relating to their personal situation
or welfare without parental consent or the consent or the consent of an adult being responsible for them.

15. Confidentiality
Investigations and medical stories are the biggest ark of confidentiality, more so when someone who has broken the law is being
interviewed or known to be questioned a journalist must protect the identity from the media where there is important information
being talked about.
In medical cases the use of confidentiality means that the information talked about will not be passed on to a third party, it is also the
act of keeping something a secret for specific reasons known between the professional and the criminal or patient.
http://www.pcc.org.uk/assets/696/Code_of_Practice_2012_A4.pdf - Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential
sources of information. Another sector of confidentiality is that “the press must not identify victims of sexual assault or publish
material likely to contribute to such identification unless there is adequate justification and they are legally free to do so.
In an example of missing Claudia Lawrence, many suspects were named by the press and slandered by many local people, the people
that were ‘named and shamed’ in the paper and then been released have had their lives turned upside down, this information being
published in the press has been detrimental to their home life and family life when the suspects who had been arrested were only
being talked to by the police force.

16. Official Secrets
People working with sensitive information are commonly required to sign a statement that makes them agree to abide by the
restrictions of the Official Secrets Act. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Secrets_Act The act also protects state secrets and
national security. The act has previously been used to try and force journalists into revealing certain sources, if the authority believes
that they are a matter of national security.
An example of using the act was looking at the phone hacking of Milly Dowler. The Met police are seeking a court order under the act
to make Guardian (newspaper) reporters disclose their confidential sources about the scandal. The NUJ general secretary Michelle
Stanistreet was quoted as saying “This is a very serious threat to journalists and the NUJ will fight off this vicious attempt to use the
Officials Secrets Act, journalists have investigated the hacking story and told the truth to the public. They should be congratulated
rather than being hounded and criminalized by the state.”
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/sep/16/phone-hacking-met-court-order
In 2007 a judge made clear that journalists and their sources are protected under article 10 of the Human Rights Act. Michelle also
said that “The use of the Official Secrets Act is a disgraceful attempt to get round this existing judgment.”

17. Ethical Responsibilities
As well as legal obligations there are also ethical responsibilities that a journalist needs to consider when going into their work. As ever
there are codes of practice from the NUJ and the Editors Code of Practice that give guidelines on how to conduct work and also how to
write it. These codes give every writer in the field a list of standards and expectations, in the unlikely event that something goes
wrong.
The Press Complaints Commission was replaced by the Independent Press Standards Organisations or also known as the IPSO, thenew
commission took over in September 2014.
The Press Complaints Commission was an independent representative that administrated self-regulation for the press. Around the
complaints the PCC used the guidelines from the Editors Code of Practice about newspaper and magazine content.
The PCC code of practice lists 16 points on what a journalist needs to consider when writing: http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html
• Accuracy
• Opportunity to reply
• Privacy
• Harassment
• Intrusion into grief or shock
• Children
• Children in sex cases
• Hospitals
• Reporting of Crime
• Clandestine devices and subterfuge
• Victims of sexual assault
• Discrimination
• Financial journalism
• Confidential sources
• Witness payments in criminal trials
• Payment to criminals

18. Ethical Responsibilities
Accuracy:
• The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information including pictures.
•A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion once recognized must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence
and - where appropriate an apology published. In cases involving the commission, prominence should be agreed with the PPC in
advance.
Opportunity to reply:
•A fair opportunity for reply to inaccuracies must be given when reasonably called for.
Privacy:
•Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence including digital
communications.
•Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual’s private life without consent.
•It is unacceptable to photograph individuals in private places without their consent.
Harassment:
•Journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.
• They must not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing individuals once asked to desist; nor remain on their
property when asked to leave and must not follow them. If requested, they must identify themselves and whom they represent.
Intrusion into grief or shock:
•In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion and publication
handled sensitively. This should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings such as inquests.
Children:
•Young people should be free to complete their time at school without unnecessary intrusion.
•A child under 16 must not be interviewed or photographed on issues involving their own or another child’s welfare unless a custodial
parent or similarly responsible adult consents.

19. Ethical Responsibilities
Children in sex cases:
•The press must not, even if legally free to do so, identify children under 16 who are victims or witnesses in cases involving sex
offences.
•In any press report of a case involving a sexual offence against a child –
• the child must not be identified
• the adult may be identified
• the word “incest” must not be used where a child victim might be identified
• care must be taken that nothing in the report implies the relationship between the accused and the child.
Hospitals:
•Journalists must identify themselves and obtain permission from a responsible executive before entering non-public areas of
hospitals or similar institutions to pursue enquiries.
•The restrictions on intruding into privacy are particularly relevant to enquiries about individuals in hospitals.
Reporting of crime:
•Relatives of friends of persons convicted or accused of crime should not generally be indentified without their consent unless they
are genuinely relevant to the story.
•Particular regard should be paid to the potentially vulnerable position of children who witness or are victims of crime. This should
not restrict the right to report legal proceedings.
Clandestine devices and subterfuge:
•Do not publish material using hidden cameras or listening devices also by intercepting private telephone calls, messages or emails.
•Engaging in any of the above

20. Ethical Responsibilities
Victims of sexual assault:
•Not identify any victims to material likely to contribute to identification unless there is justification to do so and they are legal free
to do that.
Discrimination:
• details on individuals such as race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness should be avoided unless
necessary to the story.
Financial Journalism:
• Journalists must not buy or sell, either directly or through nominees or agents, shares or securities about which they have written
recently or about which they intend to write in the near future.
Confidential Sources:
• Every journalist has a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information.
Witness payments in criminal trials:
• no payment or offer of payment to a witness – or any person who may reasonably be expected to be called as a witness – should
be made in any case once proceedings are active as defined by the Contempt of Court Act 1981.
This prohibition lasts until the suspect has been freed unconditionally be police without charge or bails or the proceedings are
otherwise discontinued; or has entered a guilty plea to the court; or, in the event or a not guilty plea, the court has announced its
verdict.
Payment to criminals:
•Payment or offers of payment for stories, pictures or information, which seek to exploit a particular crime or to glorify or glamorize
crime in general must not be made directly or via agents to convicted or confesses criminals or to their associates – who may
include family, friends and colleagues.
http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html