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Are you a journalist ... or what?
Writing in a recent U.S. journalism trade magazine, columnist Allan Wolper asserts that, "It is an open secret that many journalists in Pakistan hold down side jobs with the government, including the ISI (Pakistan's secret service)."1
A reporter at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, Louisiana (U.S.) questions the credibility of a local television broadcaster who is on-camera in some of her husband's television ads promoting him for public office.2
A Time magazine article delves into the ethically questionable relationship between fashion editors and designers. The article reports that many fashion journalists receive thousands of dollars worth of free clothing and other perks.3
An Associated Press correspondent in Bolivia resigns after a Web site reports he has a conflict of interest. The reporter made a speech in La Paz in favor of a water project that could benefit a children's foundation he had set up.4
Finally, a columnist writing for the MoscowTimes.com reports that a journalist with two children, an unemployed husband and a monthly salary of $30 (U.S.) complains that she could never get by in legitimate journalism without freelancing "stories to order" on the side, either at the request of her boss or on her own. Made to order stories look to readers like legitimate stories, but they are paid for by the company featured.
What's the big concern? Why do journalists and why should our audiences care whether we make money on the side if we are careful to keep the desires and interests of our several employers separate?
The ethical issue can be asked this way: Is it ever ethically correct to do journalism-related work outside our journalism job, whether paid or donated? The answer here is "No."
The fundamental service provided by journalists is to tell our audiences what we find out on their behalf. Our audiences expect us to be a largely independent voice they can trust to get it right. Our two biggest blunders that can cost us this trust is to get it wrong or to appear to be in the pocket of another person or institution.
Of course, the devil is in the details. As an international journalism friend of mine says, "a second job driving a taxi or sewing pants should not be seen as a conflict, but working a second job for government, or a public relations/advertising firm or a company covered by the newspaper is a violation of ethics."
We have a commonly used convention in U.S. news media called disclosure. When it works right, reporters disclose conflicts to editors so they can decide if it's proper for a reporter to cover a particular story. And there is disclosure to readers, viewers or listeners when the audience might think there is a potential conflict.I am convinced from my visits to 17 countries where I gave investigative reporting training that owners could make a substantial contribution to ethical behavior by a) paying their journalists a living wage, and b) extricating themselves and their companies more diligently from compromising situations. Nevertheless, an ethics code of conduct begins and ends with our individual actions.
Think about it. If you were doing a profile of a peace activist who opposes all armed conflict and found out that two years earlier she had received money from a multinational arms dealer, wouldn't you report this because you think it is at least a conflict of interest your audience should know about?
Journalists need no less scrutiny.
That's what I think. Tell us what you think.
(John Ullmann, a former journalist, is executive director of the World Press Institute. These views are his own.)
Notes:
1. Wolper, Allan, Editor & Publisher, p.14, Dec. 10, 2001
2. http://www.nola.com/tv/t-p/indes.ssf?entertainmentsy/tv.html,(Downloaded Nov. 14, 2001)
3. Time, p. 58(4), June 5, 1995
4. http://fair.org/activism/ap-bolivia-update.html, (Downloaded Nov. 14, 2001)
5. http://abroad.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001/03/13/007.html, (Downloaded Nov.13, 2001)
