Media Harm and Offense  

Oleh:

Ward, Stephen J. A.

Jenis: Article from Books - E-Book
Dalam koleksi: Ethics and the Media: An Introduction, page 161-206.
Topik: Harm in Ethics; Contending Principles; Principles for Media; Media Harm; Media Offense
Fulltext: Media Harm and Offense.pdf (457.43KB)

Isi artikel

The power of news media can be abused. Abuse leads to misinformation, erroneous judgments, and harmful consequences for individuals, groups, and countries. Therefore, ethics promotes the responsible use of media freedom and power. Responsible use means restraining the freedom to publish by considering the harm that stories and images may cause. I assume that previous chapters have explained suf? ciently why media have responsibilities. I now concern myself with what those responsibilities are, how they are expressed by restraining principles, and how the principles should operate in situations. In particular, I examine the restraining principles of avoiding harm and offense. In the ? rst three sections of the chapter, I discuss the importance of avoiding harm for ethics and I examine contending principles for restricting liberty, including the liberty of the press. I formulate and argue for three principles of restraint for media: (1) avoiding unjusti? ed harm to others; (2) avoiding unjusti?ed “profound offence”; and (3) minimizing harm where harm is justi? ed. The three principles take their inspiration from John Stuart Mill. In the remaining sections, I apply the three principles to cases that involve the potential harm of reporting kidnappings and publishing state secrets. I also consider cases that require journalists to minimize harm when they publish graphic and offending images.

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