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Doing Ethics For Photojournalists ¹

When you ask good questions, you make good ethical decisions

1] What do I know? What do I need to know?
2] What is my journalistic purpose?
3] What are my ethical concerns?
4] What organizational policies and professional guidelines should I consider?
5] How can I include the voices of other people, with different perspectives and diverse ideas, in the decision-making process?
6] Who are the stakeholders - those affected by my decision?
7] What if the roles were reversed? How would I feel if I were in the shoes of one of the stakeholders?
8] What are the possible consequences of my actions? Short term? Long term? Are we sacrificing truth telling for technical quality?
9] What are my alternatives to maximize my truth telling responsibility and minimize harm?
10] Can I clearly and fully justify my thinking and my decision? To my colleagues? To the stakeholders? To the public? To myself?
11] Is the photograph being presented as editorial reporting or illustration.

• Is the photograph what the photographer saw in the viewfinder?
• Is the photograph being changed in ways beyond basic image quality corrections?
• Is the illustration clearly obvious to the reader/ viewer?
• Is it necessary to place the image in context with additional text for disclosure?

1. From Doing Ethics in Journalism, Diversity Section, Society of Professional Journalists, 1995