It is something that some news industries shy away from; reporting on news pertaining to certain religions. The job of the journalist is to try to stay impartial and credible. But what happens when their religion hinders their ability to report on a subject, or in this scenario, it is a beat that pays the bills.
The ethical dilemma in most newsrooms is to either report the facts yet have the freedom of religion. Both are right. Faith and neutrality collide in this sense. But this time instead of keeping religion out of the story, it IS the story. Objectivity could possibly be lost in this example.
Since reporters identify with different religions (Catholic, Jewish, Wicca, Muslim) this begs the question, are journalists ever really objective? A reporter would most likely, if trained properly, would put aside his or her beliefs and be objective for the report. But this has to be a difficult thing to accomplish and take a lot of practice and experience. A journalist is to be present as a reporter, not a Jew, or Christian, or Muslim.
Many reporters have to do it, but, is it ethical to push religious beliefs to the back while reporting in order to maintain objective, neutral and impartial?
1 comment:
Many newspapers still publish so called religion pages. The stories are generally human interest pieces. Most media companies do not fail to report on stories that indirectly have a religion angle such as the recent revelation about Daystar Television Network founder Marcus Lamb's affair.
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