Journalistic ethics

Dear readers, what comes to mind when you come across the term "ethical publishing"? Surely something along the lines of a carefully written magazine, newspaper or article that does not mention anything that might be offensive to anybody in any way?

On the sixth of February this year, there was an article posted on ABC news titled "Indonesian Weekly Apologizes Over Last Suharto Cover" where an Indonesian weekly was apologizing profusely for publishing something that offended a certain group of people. The Indonesian Weekly, Koran Tempo, had published a sketch of the late Suharto surrounded by his sons and daughters at a table mimicking Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper on the front cover of the weekly, thus causing Christians to complain.

(Image source: http://www.daylife.com/photo/0dUFdkFbDIbYt)

The weekly apologized, stating that they had no intention of hurting Christians, but they were only inspired by the composition of the Leonardo painting, and not the concept or the context of the event told in the holy bible.

A similar case like this incident would be the Makkal Osai case in 2007, where the Tamil daily had posted a picture of Jesus holding a can which looked like alcohol in one hand and a cigarette in another. The Tamil Daily apologized, but in the end their license was still revoked.

(Image source: http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2008/07/15/christians-riot-over-offensive-images-in-india/)

In my opinion, these two newspapers should have been more careful and more observant before posting these pictures, and they also should possess journalistic ethics instead of blatantly posting it and having to take the pictures down and apologizing after it is too late. According to Wikipedia, news should have the principles of truthfulness, accuracy, objective, fairness, impartiality and public accountability in order to be 'newsworthy'.

In the end, as a journalist, you have to watch what you post and stick to your journalistic ethics.


References:

AEDT 2008, “Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover”, ABC News, viewed 6 November 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm

The Star 2007, “Makkal Osai suspended”, The Star Online, viewed 6 November 2008, http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/24/nation/20070824174754&sec=nation

The Star 2007, “Tamil daily says sorry over Jesus pic”, The Star Online, viewed 6 November 2008, http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/23/nation/18670506&sec=nation

Wikipedia, ‘Journalism ethics and standards’, Wikepedia.com, viewed 6 November 2008, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_ethics_and_standards