Codes of Conduct

The most crucial element to Codes of Conduct is ethics. Ethics is self preservation. If journalists break the Codes of Conduct they are consequently acting in an unethical manner. To be unethical is anything which short-changes a reader or a viewer. Anything such as spelling mistakes, bad language and a poor layout are all considered to be unethical.

There are four Codes of Conduct which are:

1. NUJ Code of Conduct
2. PCC Editor's Code of Practise
3. BBC Producer Guidelines ('standards and values')
4. OFCOM Broadcasting Code (sections 5,6,7,8)

The PCC could take action if you're an unethical journalist and act unethically by making up facts etc. This can then be taken as evidence against you in a libel case. There is the possibility that this could be mentioned in court if there is press complaints.

The BBC is similar to the PCC.

If you work for Rupert Murdoch's papers such as 'The Sun' and 'The Times' and you break the PCC Code you will be fired immediately with no compensation. This is because it is written in a Murdoch employee's contract that they must abide by the PCC Code even though you will be asked and expected to report in an unethical manner. They just don't wnat you to be caught.

The NUJ is the journalists own Code of Conduct. Murdoch banned his employees from joining the NUJ. A membership is priced around £25 a year and enables you to report with ethical guidelines. The majority of the BBC are members of the NUJ. It is illegal for any trade union to force you to join the NUJ.

As stated on the NUJ website (http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=174):

Members of the National Union of Journalists are expected to abide by the following professional principles:

A journalist:


1. At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed

2. Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair

3. Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies

4. Differentiates between fact and opinion

5. Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of investigations that are both overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means

6. Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest

7. Protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the course of her/his work

8. Resists threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or suppress information and takes no unfair personal advantage of information gained in the course of her/his duties before the information is public knowledge

9. Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation


10. Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance endorse by advertisement any commercial product or service save for the promotion of her/his own work or of the medium by which she/he is employed

11. A journalist shall normally seek the consent of an appropriate adult when interviewing or photographing a child for a story about her/his welfare.


12. Avoid plagiarism.