JORM 2085: ENGLISH NEWS

REPORTING AND WRITING

WEEK 10: JOURNALISM CODE OF

ETHICS (CONTIN’ FROM LAST
WEEK)

MR SIU CHI YUI, PHILA

GUEST LECTURE
 10% of your grade
 Submission deadline: Nov 25 (Thurs) 11.59pm

 Email me

 File name = your name

PROJECT
 20% of your grade
 Submission deadline for Word doc and PPT: 25 Nov (Thurs)
6pm.
 Names of your file should be your name

 It’s not a requirement to present with a PPT. But you can do it

if you ant to
 Your Word doc will be graded. But the PPT will not.

 The presentation is a chance for you to tell / convince me and

your schoolmates how awesome your story is
CASE STUDIES / SCENARIO
 1) You’re covering a traffic incident where a woman was killed.
Her husband arrived soon afterwards and you saw him.

 What do you do? Do you interview him?

 You may, if you think it’s absolutely necessary.
 But you MUST think about what you want to ask him.

 How are you feeling now? (STUPID QUESTION)

 What’s the woman’s background? (HEY! This man just lost his
wife! Uneccessary Q)

 My take:
 I most likely won’t interview him. Just observe his emotions
from some distance and see if he’d say anything himself.
 If I must approach him, show respect, show care, say you’re
sorry for his loss; you want to help; give him your card; tell
him to contact you if he needs help pursuing justice for his
wife. If he doesn’r want to talk, walk away.
I was one of the reporters waiting outside the gov building where
family members of victims were having a meeting. How did I
approach them?
 2) You interviewed a company CEO. He asked you to send him
a copy of the article before it’s published.

 Should you?
 No you can’t.

 Can’t let your interviewee decide what you publish.

 Ask interviewee why he wants to see the story before it’s

published. Tell him if he just wants to make sure it’s accurate,
you have the conversations recorded and you will listen back to
the recording to make sure all is accurate.

 If he insists, then you have a tough decision to make. I may

tell him that, fine, then we won’t publish the story at all. But
you need to think about if you want to ruin your relation with
him.
 3) You interviewed a politician / government official.
After the interview, he suddenly asked to be quoted off-
the-record. What do you do?
 Ask yourself: why would he ask to be quoted off the record?
 Does he simply fear he will lose his job?

 Does he have ulterior motive? For example, if he just trying

to “spin” the story so the controversy looks less embarassing
for the gov?
 If the interviewee claim that the government official did not
do anything bad, can he provide proof? A document? Emails?
SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL
JOURNALISTS
 https://www.spj.org/ethicscasestudies.asp
 1) Who’s the Predator?

 2) Publishing Drunk Drivers’ Photos