Ethics is applied in the absence of law; those words have marked me since I had first heard it from one of our professors’ way back in college.
First let’s define the two terms, law and ethics. Law is the whole system or set of rules by the government of a town, state or a country. Basically, it is a binding custom or practice of a country, a rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority, failure to comply with such laws will certainly result in persecution and punishment.
While ethics, on the other hand, is just a set of moral principles, a rule of behavior based on ideas about what is morally good and bad. It may be also referred to as an idea or a belief that something is very important; such examples are values, morals, etc.
Our human laws do not pretty much cover everything up. It has a lot of loopholes, this is why ethics exists. It covers up the shortcomings of the laws and provides guidelines for us to follow.
Every job, vocation, occupation, whatever it is you call it, has a code of ethics. This code of ethics states the principles and expectations governing the behavior of individual organizations in the conduct of internal auditing. It describes the minimum requirements for conduct and behavioral expectations rather than specific activities.
We, as mass communication professionals have a lot of code of ethics to follow. Some of such are the Journalism Code of Ethics, Business Ethics (for Public Relations and Marketing), KBP TV Code of Ethics, KBP Broadcast Code. Though not absolute, those ethics bind us, media practitioners to our limits and proper practice of our profession.
In the KBP Broadcast Code of Ethics, stakeholders such as the viewing public, politicians, the journalist themselves, broadcasters, networks, producers, religious institutions, the government, different agencies whether government or private, children, everyone, and everything is included. Meaning, it seeks to protect everyone, not only the viewing public but also those who are subject to the news items. It reminds us not to be biased in religious broadcasts and even in writing political issues. It also protects our children from vulgar and explicit contents of the media.
Though the Broadcast Code was almost perfect, to me I think they should add to its provisions a section for Yellow Journalism or Sensationalism. Nowadays, publications like to make little things bigger, this is not bad yes, if the issues they magnify are significant news, but what makes me sad is they like to enlarge non-sense and non-beneficial news items.
Instead of talking about our country’s political issues, they like to report more on morbid crimes, robbery here and there, rape-slay victims and such, but hey, I’m not saying they should not report about those, what I’m saying is they should not sensationalize it. Reporting it once or twice would be fine but repeating it more than that is something else. Also, put something more positive in the headlines, please.
A section for responsible journalism or broadcasting is also needed I think. I am not a basher of the AlDub tandem or of the Pastillas Girl, which were both sensationalized way back when I was in college, but I think we should focus more on developmental journalism and not on who is better between the two. Yes, surely, it is the headline the majority of the viewing public wants and demands, but definitely not the one we need and we deserve. How far have we really fallen? How can we forget what it is that really matters?
Knowing such code of ethics by heart and not through memorization will not only be our guide for our future endeavors but also our guide to shaping the nation. As media professionals, we have the power to change the minds of the people, to persuade them, to call them into action, we have the power to change the world, and this code of something will be our greatest armament of all.