#Wilmington news journal code#
#Wilmington news journal professional#
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When an issue involves two or more sides in conflict, all significant interests should be given an opportunity to respond.fairness in stories requires completeness, relevance, leveling with the reader and straightforwardness ahead of flashiness. The supervisor or executive editor should then determine whether the potential conflict requires removal of the reporter or editor from handling a story.įor example, a reporter should not cover nor should an editor make a crucial editorial decision about a story involving a business in which a spouse holds a job or has a strong financial interest, about such volatile issues as abortion if he or she has an overwhelming philosophical commitment, or about a zoning issue if the reporter's house or neighborhood is affected.

#Wilmington news journal professional#

Such consideration should include personal investments, outside business interests and personal, professional or business relationships, as well as any issue to which the reporter or editor has an overwhelming personal commitment. To avoid any appearance of partisanship in any public issue, campaign buttons and bumper stickers should not be displayed nor should public advertisements or petitions be signed.Ī reporter or an editor shall advise a supervisor or the executive editor of any potential conflict of interest. Each of us should be wary of expressing opinions in casual conversation or elsewhere that may then be cited by others as a basis for charging news slanting. The editorial page and opinion columns are the places for such expressions. Each of us should avoid public involvement in, and expression of opinion about, controversial issues. Reporters should not comment editorially on stories they are covering and should not write about events in which they're personally involved. The News-Journal papers recognize that the power we have as the dominant source of information for residents of Delaware and adjacent areas carries with it special responsibilities to face the public with politeness and candor, to avoid the appearance of arrogance and to listen to the voiceless.Īccuracy and impartial reporting and editing should be the hallmarks of the News-Journal papers. Every effort was made to elicit comments and contributions from the entire staff while they were being prepared. These guidelines were prepared and revised by committees of news and editorial department employees.

#Wilmington news journal code#

That this code of ethics applies to all news and editorial department employees of The News-Journal Co. That the public must be assured that our writers, photographers and editors are beholden to no one. This means avoiding all possible conflicts of interest, or the appearance thereof.

#Wilmington news journal free#

That our management and employees must remain free of obligation to any special interests. That an individual's own judgment and integrity are the keystones of this code, because it would be impossible to spell out every single question that might arise. In some cases, these individual codes may be more stringent than what follows here as News-Journal policy, but this code will give all of us the same minimum guidelines.Īs statements of general principle in this code of ethics the following are offered: Because a newspaper and its staff are subject to severe public scrutiny, it becomes necessary for employees to avoid both the fact and appearance of partiality and dishonesty.Īll of us as members of the press have been operating under our own codes of ethics. Lose it, and the newspaper loses the very power that makes it a community force.īecause of this, every newspaper - and every newspaperperson - must take certain safeguards to ensure the paper's integrity. A newspaper's most important asset is its integrity.