For sure obeying to ethical rules is very important in any profession. However when it comes to journalism, it is especially quite a tough job to obey these rules. You have to be careful with your relations, however you have to have some relations to be able to get some news too. Moreover, as you dont know what you may have to report in the future, it is almost impossible for you to be careful with all your relationships. It seems that you have to have very distant relationships with your environment to be able to be a true journalist.
Do you know any journalist who covered an important issue about one of their relatives? Do you know any journalists who continued to write at his column even after he strictly criticize his editor in his column? Personally I don’t know, but if you know such journalists please share with us.
Serpil Atalay
In fact, the most challenging issue is ethics.
It is not only the question whether we should publish or not the news content.
The relation between the source(or people who have information)&journalist is one of the most important one.
However, it requires distance and attention.
Some sources can mislead you and give you wrong information in order to protect their interest.
Journalism is the art of establishing and maintaining sources without being influenced by them. No matter, how important information they provide you, it is a journalist’s responsibility to counter check the information before printing/ airing them.