Morality and Journalists: Objectivity Versus Duty of Care
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Morality and Journalists: Objectivity versus Duty of Care Thabo Leshilo Student number: 1568838 A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Applied Ethics for Professionals. 13 July 2018, Johannesburg ABSTRACT In this research report I address the question: Do journalists have a moral duty towards those they report on beyond the objectivity requirement of their job? I use the famous example of freelance photojournalist Kevin Carter and his iconic photograph of a starving Sudanese child, seemingly on death’s door and being stalked by a vulture. He was roundly condemned for shooting the image but doing nothing to save the child’s life. I examine this classic example of the observance of the journalistic standard of objectivity and non-intervention, against the Kantian imperative to respect human life. I contrast this with two examples in which, in my view, journalists acted correctly in terms of Kantian ethics by putting human life above their own, narrow professional roles and interests. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my parents, Mogalatjane Abraham Leshilo, and Mase Ellen Leshilo, for their foresight in enabling me to go to university despite financial hardship and their fortitude in seeing me through. I would also like to pay tribute to my wife, Mapeu Leshilo, for her support, encouragement and forbearance during my studies for this degree. Special thanks go to my supervisor, Dr. Samantha Vice, for her guidance throughout this project, as well as my lecturer, Dr. Dylan Futter, for his advice on the initial research proposal. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... ii DECLARATION ........................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................... iv SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 a. The Question and the Specific Case ................................................................................ 3 b. Professional Duties and Role Morality............................................................................ 8 c. Objectivity in Perspective ............................................................................................. 15 SECTION 2: DEFENCE OF THE THESIS ....................................................................................... 20 a. Reflections on the South African Media During and Post-Apartheid ........................... 20 b. Postcolonial Theory of the Media ................................................................................. 27 c. Ubuntu in South Africa.................................................................................................. 29 d. Ahimsa in Indian Media ................................................................................................ 31 SECTION 3: THE CASE AGAINST INTERVENTION ...................................................................... 33 a. Objectivity and Non-Intervention ................................................................................. 33 b. Media Bias and Neutrality ............................................................................................ 33 c. Utility Argument ........................................................................................................... 38 d. Why the Utilitarianism Argument Fails ......................................................................... 41 e. The Doctrine of Double Effect ...................................................................................... 43 i. Killing and Letting Die ................................................................................................ 46 ii. Making/Allowing ....................................................................................................... 48 SECTION 4: ARGUMENTS FOR INTERVENTION ........................................................................ 51 a. Act-Omission Distinction (AOD) .................................................................................... 54 b. Positive and Negative Duties Doctrine ......................................................................... 58 SECTION 5: MY ANSWER TO THE QUESTION ........................................................................... 61 a. Example 1 ...................................................................................................................... 62 b. Example 2 ...................................................................................................................... 63 SECTION 6: OBJECTION AND REBUTTAL .................................................................................. 65 a. Transparency ................................................................................................................. 66 SECTION 7: CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 70 REFERENCE LIST ....................................................................................................................... 74 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................. 78 v SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION Journalism plays a vital informational role in society. We rely on the work of its practitioners – specifically reporters and photographers, its ‘foot soldiers’ – to know what is going on in our neighbourhoods, the country, the continent and the world. And, access to information is a cornerstone of representative democracy. According to Herbert Gans (2003:1): The country [United States] is formally considered a representative democracy, but the representatives are supposed to be guided by the citizenry, through voting and participating in other ways. Elected officials from the president on down may ultimately make the decisions, but they are still seen as doing the citizens’ bidding: acting as surrogates for them between elections. Although elected representatives stand in for the citizenry, they too are supposed to “belong” to the citizens. Journalists also follow the [American] Dream, but they add an informational provision. The country’s democracy may belong directly or indirectly to its citizens, but the democratic process can only be truly meaningful if these citizens are informed. Journalism’s job is to inform them. What Gans says about the US applies by and large to other democracies too. In South Africa, for example, the Press Freedom Commission (PFC) says in the foreword to its report detailing its recommendations for regulation of the country’s press: The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa values the right of everyone to freedom of expression, which includes the freedom of the press and other media. The print media fulfils an extremely critical role in the realisation of this right. The media, however, does not 1 operate in a vacuum; the manner in which it goes about its work will always be of interest to the greater public. This is so because the media concerns people, is about people. It is about how their lives are touched by whatever is written and published in it. (PFC: 2012,5) To carry out this vital informational role well, journalists have to ensure that the information they pass on – be it words and images in print, on radio, television, online or through any other medium – is truthful and accurate (ibid.). They are also required to provide the information in a way that is unbiased, fair, and balanced. The latter set of requirements speaks to the important journalistic principle of objectivity. This (almost) universal principle is expressed in various press codes – such as the South African Press Code, and those of America’s Society of Professional Journalists, and the country’s National Press Photographers’ Association. I use ‘objectivity’ to mean that journalists are required to report news ‘truthfully, accurately and fairly’ as per the South African Press Code. This sense is also conveyed by Judith Lichtenberg (1990, 6), a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University, when she says that: [T]he contemporary journalist working for a major daily, a newsmagazine, or a television network is expected to be neutral, fair, balanced, objective, and altogether ‘value-free.’ These traits form part of the norm of objectivity, which is a cornerstone of the professional ideology of journalists in liberal democracies. However, journalists are human beings, not robots. They are forever faced with the difficult moral question of what to do when reporting human tragedy: specifically, whether they have a moral duty of care towards their subjects, beyond simply reporting on their plight. 2 They hence can’t always be ‘value-free’ and not intervene in situations that they cover, especially situations of human tragedy. And, it is - unreasonable to expect them to. To support my point, l discuss in what follows the ethical issues and distinctions concerning (among other topics): acts and omissions; doing harm or allowing evil to happen; media ethics; professional ethics; the doctrine of double effect; killing and letting die; beneficence; special obligations and social institutions;