Journalism ethics refers to principles of ethics and good practice and are laid down in ‘codes of ethics’. These codes are either drafted by professional journalists’ associations or by individual print, electronic, broadcast or online news organisations, to help reporters, editors and journalists deal with a variety of situations which may arise in the course of reporting and analysing the news. Most codes share common elements including, truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability.
Beyond crisis reporting, there are problems with the way women are covered. Tasneem Ahmar, Director, Uks Research (a media monitoring group that works towards sensitising the media on women’s issues) says that the media tends to objectify women, overplays the negative in terms of the lack of women’s empowerment, and uses insensitive and politically incorrect language to describe them.

What is the solution?
There is a dire need to tend to the media ethics situation in Pakistan; measures are needed at both the industry and the organisational level in order to tackle the problem.

1. A code of ethics
An industry accepted code of ethics is needed in order to level the playing field and to ensure that all media organisations are playing by the same rules. Although drafts have been made and circulated, these have not amounted to much because many editors and managers do not have the political will to see it through.

2.Regular training for journalists
Not only should all journalists be furnished with a copy of the code of conduct, they also need regular training to deal with issues pertaining to ethics. It isn’t enough just to know the rules, journalists need help in how to apply them in a variety of areas.