| Photojournalists should be |
Descriptions |
Real life unethical examples |
| Honest |
Do not lie or cheat to get photos. |
Impersonation, use hidden camera at close range. |
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Do not direct, set up, re-stage, digital manipulate photos to look like candid. |
Reenactment, Photoshoping to change photos that change its content or create something not candidly exist. |
| Do not dramatize, exaggerate photos to deviate from the fact. |
Using wide-angle to make something looks much bigger. Use special lens effect to change the look of a photo. |
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| Accurate and truthful |
Make sure photo selected reflects the fact in terms of time, subjects and situation. Accuracy of photograph should not be any less than written words. |
Using a great action photos taken in the beginning of a basketball game to illustrate the exciting moment of the final 2 mins of a game. |
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Use a photo of a group of students walking out of the library to illustrate them as library users without fact-checking with them. What if they just get into the library for crossing to the parking lot? |
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Sloppy in collecting people’s names, titles, ages, organizations they represent, the moment, the stage, the time the photo was taken, the date, the location, the how and why. |
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A factual photo might not be an accurate photo.
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Concentrate on small areas but forget the more truthful whole picture. |
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Do not provide only partial coverage. Pick whatever conveniently accessible is a disservice to the public. |
Arrive late, leave early. Pick a cliche shot without checking around at a news event scene. |
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Objective
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Photojournalists are observers. We can show understanding, but we don’t take sides. |
Shoot or pick photos that favor your personal beliefs. Yell together with the protestors because you personally support them. Put on political buttons and caps given by event organizers. |
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To be trustworthy, we don’t photograph stories that we personally involved or subject matters that might create conflict of interest. |
Take photos of your close friends and relatives to illustrate a story. Report on an organization you personally belongs to. |
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| Independent |
Our job is to serve the public. Not us, or a specific group of people. We take photos we thought it should be taken. We work for the public, not for any specific groups. We follow our news value judgment and avoid any possible influence from outside parties. |
Letting people other than the editorial staffs to view or edit our photos before they are published. |
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We will not surrender to power or threats to affect our news operation. |
Giving in to advertisers or news sources that threaten to retaliate if you refuse to publish or not publish the photo. |
| We will not accept gift, monetary payment from people / organization we photograph. |
Receiving souvenirs, free tickets, coupons, cashes that would undermine our credibility. |
| We will not pay to get interview, except the cost ordinary people have to pay. |
Paying people to let us take photos could give incentive to subject to act (pretend) for us. |
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Socially responsible
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We make judgment base on how much our photos affect the community and individuals. Sometimes the public’s right to know might not be as important as the safety or privacy of the people we photograph.
We make our own ethical decision whether to publish a photo or not. |
Photos or the action of acquiring photos that induce greater harm or danger to victims or their family.
Revealing of kidnappers identity or kidnapping progress. Revealing of police’s deployment.
Photos that unnecessarily embarrass people.
Photos that jeopardize national security. |