The committee that revised the Society’s Code of Ethics felt the document’s tenets and underlying principles apply to all journalism regardless of how it’s ultimately presented. Still, the committee knew people interested in ethical journalism may benefit from additional guidance from the Society and other people and organizations.
Below are several resources that the Society’s ethics committee compiled to help people with day-to-day decisions. These resources are not formally part of the Code. Also, these lists will grow and change as more resources are found, or as resources become obsolete.
For those people who still have questions, please email the Society’s Ethics Hotline: ethics@spj.org
- Al Tompkins writes on Poynter about a New York newspaper that published the names and addresses of people who had obtained gun permits. The publishing came shortly after dozens of children and several school officials were killed in a mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. “The problem is that the paper was not aggressive enough in its reporting to justify invading the privacy of people who legally own handguns in two counties it serves,” he writes.
SOURCE: http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/199218/where-the-journal-news-went-wrong-in-publishing-names-addresses-of-gun-owners/
- Andrew Seaman writes for the Society’s Ethics Committee blog about a case when a reporter posted a photograph of a police report to Twitter with a person’s address and telephone numbers. “As children learn, sharing is caring, but we should care about what we share,” he writes.
SOURCE: http://blogs.spjnetwork.org/ethics/2014/10/05/caring-about-sharing/
- Mónica Guzmán writes in The Seattle Times about responsibly sharing information. “Professional journalists expect scrutiny that members of the public won’t,” she writes. “But we’re all part of one information society, contributors to a larger, chatty whole. The more responsibly we share, the better off we’ll all be.”
SOURCE: http://blogs.seattletimes.com/monica-guzman/2014/09/13/we-are-not-a-mob-a-call-to-share-responsibly/