Is Breach Of Privacy In Journalism Industry Ethical?

According to the article, phone hacking scandal is now an issue happening in United Kingdom (UK). UK phones is hacked to gain insides of murder victims, terror attacks, celebrities and the missing 13 year old deleted messages. The News of The World (NOTW) with the insides report this issues to get hot sensation news so that the public will be interested and buy their newspapers.

Nowadays, journalism industry is pressured by their competitor and the public itself to be the best, therefore they are pressured to do unethical things. In my opinion, it is unethical for any journalism industry to breach individuals privacy just to get fresh and hot news to increase readership or to gain advantages as compared to other journalism competitors. According to Dr Edward Spence, a senior lecturer in media ethics, School of Communication and Creative Industries cited in News.csu.edu.au agrees and state that invasion of privacy in this phone hacking scandal is unethical and illegal as well. He added “The invasion of people's privacy when it is not a matter of public interest but only of interest to some members of the public who thrive on celebrity and political gossip, as well as scandal, is never ethically justified” (News.csu.edu.au, 2011). 

In my opinion, journalism industry should be more ethical when reporting issues, not to breach people’s privacy to compete with other journalism company even when being pressured. A journalism company should not, invade people’s privacy, manipulate issues, have a balanced information and information should be accurately written to avoid misinterpretation. Australian-news.com.au (2010) agrees and state that journalist should follow the Australian Journalists Association (AJA) Code of Ethics which is honesty, fairness, independence and respect the right of others. 

Additionally, as a journalists work in a private business, a journalist have all these public responsibilities that they adhere to. Therefore a journalist must respect people’s privacy and respect the public’s right to information so that trust is form between the public and journalist. 

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Reference

Australian-news.com.au 2010, Journalists Code Of Ethics - An Oxymoron?, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://www.australian-news.com.au/codethics.htm>

News.csu.edu.au 2011, Phone Tapping: It’s Illegal And Unethical, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://news.csu.edu.au/director/latestnews.cfm?itemID=07A1B9E6A2D156CAE0117A4CB6051142>