Journalism Ethics

1. Aargh! Pirates! (and the Press)

In this situation, people are having access to leaked music while the companies of the artists' are trying to prevent that from happening. Companies can lose thousands of dollars and so will the artists. But popular music-news magazines like Billboard and Rolling Stones are inserting links to where you can listen to the leaked songs.

I believe this is not ethical of these journalists and reporters when they know the situation well after covering it. The journalists know that there are consequences to sending out links to the leaked songs, so why do it? I believe it's not the smartest thing to do when trying to report something that is trying to be "prevented", but then adding negativity into helping the situation continue.

2. Publishing Drunk Drivers' Photos

Around the time of New Year's, a news company stated they were going to take photos of drunk drivers and publish them for all to see in their articles and paper. The people featured in the photo were not happy to have their name and information sent out to other reader's, knowing their name would be under a crime for all to see. 

This is not alright with me. The people have a right to not have their photo published without permission, with their information shown, while they were doing a crime like drunk driving. It doesn't seem fair to me. You're making your reader's upset and that could effect how much money you make off of the newspaper by losing readers or buyers. I don't believe this is appropriate to establish in a Newspaper, especially when the people are upset or distressed over the act. 

3. Naming Victims of Sex Crimes

The article that talks about this situation gives a few examples of victims who were sexually abused in the past and were repeatedly named in the news. Their identity was out for the world to know they were sexually abused. The different stories of these victims went nationwide.

Again, privacy is my issue here. If I was one of these victims the last thing I would want is to be known as a victim of sexual abuse. I believe the names of the victims should be shown in a community, but not nationwide or widely-public. The repetition of naming them in the news and such is not in my favor. Now, if it was the victim's choice to be named then that's fine- it can go out to anyone if they want. The real reason of my opinion is privacy. And if permission is granted, I believe then being named is alright.