Is It Ethical For News Reporters On Disasters Or Wars To Be Objective?

Code of Conducts of Journalism
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Introduction
Codes of ethics that guide the conduct of journalists require them to always uphold highest level of integrity when carrying out their mandate. Enlightenment of the public is the key objective as a profession. Enlightening of the public is the first step in ensuring that justice is served and democracy prevails. However, journalist should be ethical in their quest to inform the society about the happenings locally and globally. They should be fair, honest and accurate about the information that they are feeding the public with. Ethical journalism requires that there should be free exchange of information and the information given should be correct and accurate (Hafez, 2002).
This essay examines the role of emotions in news coverage of war and disaster, and also to determine whether objective reporting is ethical when reporting those events.
Role of Emotions in News Coverage of War and Disaster
Coverage of news about natural disasters like floods, droughts, earth quakes, wars and crimes always attracts most audience and there emotion of the reporter would matter a lot. Disasters or wars are very critical events that require extensive coverage to inform the public about the true position of events. Showing emotions while reporting such events live from the ground is very important because this will make the audience to get connected with the events on the ground at that moment. Disasters and wars are events that normally result in loss of lives and therefore being emotional when reporting such events is quite prudential. It is also important to note that journalists are human beings and therefore it is normal for them to be emotional. Another important thing about showing emotions by the journalists while reporting news about disasters or wars is that it will enable the world to understand magnitude of how situation is worst and help is required. Furthermore, trying to conceal how dismay, outrageous and being emotional when reporting these events does not help the people suffering (Hafez, 2002).
Is it Ethical for News Reporters on disasters or wars to be Objective?
A journalist or a news reporter ought to be objective as much as possible while reporting or presenting news. Objectivity in journalism refers to the act of being truthful, honest and accurate when reporting news. According to the code of ethics that guide the conduct of a journalist, indicates that journalists should truthful and give the appropriate and authentic photographs. Disasters always alter the normal way of doing things. Being objective when reporting news about disasters or wars live is ethical, but there are some pictures that might be quite disturbing to the viewer and therefore, the reporter should inform the viewer about the content of the pictures that are about to be shown in advance. For instance, when reporting news about wars that have resulted into loss of lives and bad injuries, viewer’s discretion should be asked. Viewers’ discretion is quite important because it will enable the viewer to stay away for while, if the viewer is being disturbed with horrific pictures. Therefore it is ethical for a journalist to be objective while...