[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As 2016 draws to a close, organizations like the Committee to Protect Journalists are preparing their final tallies of the number of journalists killed over the past year. The CPJ has provided systematic data on …
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Superficial “connections” in VR journalism
Superficial “connections” in VR journalism
Charlie Hebdo Controversy Raises Ethical Questions on a Global Scale
The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is notorious for causing controversy. Long before the January 2015 attack on the publication’s journalists, cartoonists were raising eyebrows with images that some people found to be distasteful at …
Protecting freelancers: A Conversation with Joel Simon of the Committee to Protect Journalists
When I first heard that the Committee to Protect Journalists had introduced a new set of standards on the protection of freelancers, I was skeptical. Would any of the major news organizations publicly embrace these …
A ‘Right to Offend’ Should be Balanced by a ‘Duty to Mend’
In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack, I and other journalists in Western democracies deplored the violence and defended freedom of expression against terrorism. A common defense of the satirical magazine’s barbed cartoons was …
More reporting needed on subject of local journalists dying in Iraq and Syria
The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been a major focus of US news outlets’ foreign correspondence over the past several months. Starting with the involvement of ISIL’s forays …
Re-thinking why we believe in free expression
For the past two weeks or more, a fierce debate has raged about the publishing of the offensive video and French magazine cartoons about Mohammed. Predictably, the debate has been structured around two positions – a strong call for free expression (offensive or not) versus calls for protection against offensive material.
Is “democratic media” a quaint memory? Let’s talk
When I asked my colleagues what the topic should be for the ethics center’s conference in April, I received an unambiguous reply: media and electoral politics.
The feeling was unambiguous not only because we are in the middle of a presidential campaign. There was another reason. Many citizens are concerned that the idea of fair and free elections, built upon tough but informative campaigns, and analyzed by fair-minded journalists, was not just an idea under pressure. It was an idea in jeopardy.
Emotion in reporting: use and abuse
Reporters are not automatons, but emotion in journalism can be manipulated, writes Stephen J.A. Ward. When is expression of emotions self-promotion or self-congratulation and when is it true compassion?