1.
0 INTRODUCTION:
Media are social institutions that expect to make a moral contribution to the
society; therefore, there is need for the rules that will guide the journalism
practice. Oso and Pate, (2011: 145) quoted Johnson saying media are
potentially “great secular church” and a system of Evangelism for
dispensing the darkness of ignorance, expelling error and establishing
truth.” On the process of their duty journalists were criticized of been
subjective and their role has been a topic of discussion. According to
Briggs and Burke 2005 they said “journalists are not to be trusted” and they
are “slanderous”. (Briggs and Burke, 2005). The reason behind this is that;
the nature of ownership, the news media weather it is government owned
media or private media, the employers are working under editorial control.
Politicians who can afford to run a media house can dictate what goes into
the pages of the newspaper (Dare, 2010:2). Government owned media
tries to protect the government interest where as private media protect the
interest of owners, these leads to the violation of stipulated code of ethics.
Like the saying goes „He who pays the piper dictates the tone‟. This
research will examine the practice of the profession of journalism in
Nigerian news media. Journalism is the trade technique or profession of
reporting news for the public by various means. James Glen Stovall says
“journalists meet many challenges in gathering, processing and distributing
the news...” (Stovall, 2005: 18). Journalists are facing serious challenges in
the process of their duty. Journalists are watchdog or gatekeepers of the
society because they decide what news is and they make much important
decision about what society says to itself. Been the gatekeepers of the
society the profession is guided by journalism code of ethics to ensure
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journalists are doing their job within the context. Ethics in journalism, is the
code of morals that journalist are supposed to uphold. These include a
commitment to revealing the truth objectivity without being influenced by
self-interest; maintaining the secrecy of sources and attributing what is said
to the appropriate source (Ike, 2005: 74).Media has become as necessary
as food and clothing. It has played significant role in strengthening the
society. Media is considered as "mirror" of the modern society, in fact, it is
the media which shapes our lives. Agenda setting describes a very
powerful influence of the media, the ability to tell us what issues are
important. McCombs and Shaw pointed out that; Agenda setting is the
creation of public awareness and concern of salient issues by the news
media. Two basis assumptions underlie most research on agenda-setting:
first, the press and the media do not reflect reality; they filter and shape it.
Second, media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads the public
to perceive those issues as more important than other issues. (McCombs &
Shaw, 1972: 176). Walter Lippmann in his 1922 classic, Public Opinion, he
noted that: “The news media are a primary source of those pictures in our
heads about the larger world of public affairs, a world that for most citizens
is out of reach, out of sight, out of mind.” The purpose of the media is to
inform people about current, new affairs and to tell about the latest gossip
and fashion. It tells about the people who are geographically divided. In
other words, Media can contribute a lot to a society. It can change opinions
because they have access to people and this gives it a lot of strength. This
strength can either be used constructively by educating the people or it can
be used destructively by misleading the innocent people, the most
important use of media is to educate the people about the basic human
rights. Media is a bridge between the governing bodies and general public.
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Considering this vital role of the media in the society, there is need for
ethical issues. This research focus on ethical issues on Nigerian news
media, before discussing the ethical issues and theories the research will
give brief background about Nigeria as a nation and Nigerian media
structure, the research also discusses about Code of Ethics for Nigerian
Journalist. The last portions of this paper dwell on finding, discussion as
well as conclusion.
1.1 NIGERIA PROFILE:
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal
constitutional republic Comprising thirty-six states and one Federal
Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares
land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and
Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast lies on the
Gulf of Guinea, a part of the Atlantic Ocean, in the south. The capital
city is Abuja. The three largest and most influential ethnic groups in
Nigeria are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Most Nigerians speak more
than one language. The country’s official language is English, English
is widely spoken, especially among educated people. Nigeria has six
geo-political zones namely: north-west, north-central, north-east,
south-south, south-east and south west. The largest religious group is
Muslim, making up about 50 percent of the population. Christians
account for about 40 percent, while the remaining 10 percent of the
people follow traditional beliefs or some combination of the two major
groups (Nigerian press: 2000). Nigeria is the most populous country
in Africa and the eighth most populous country in the world with a
population of over 150 million according to 2006 census, and in 2014
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the Nigerian population according to World Bank is 160.8 million and
the estimate population in 2014 is over 170million therefore making it
the most populous black country in the world (World Bank report:
2014). Nigerian Media Landscape. In Nigeria there are public
(Government owned) and private media houses. Totally, there are
233 government-owned radio and TV stations in Nigeria. Government
stations are either owned by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)
or by the 36 state governments. NTA belongs to the Federal
Government and was established in April 1, 1976 through the
retroactive Decree. No. 24 of 1977 to provide public service television
services throughout Nigeria while state stations are established by
State laws (Maku, 2012). FRCN was established April 1, 1978 though
Decree No. 8 of 1979 and state-owned radio stations in 36 states set-
up by respective State laws. There are over 350 broad cast stations
in Nigeria (public and private) as of August 2010 (Odufwa, 2011).
Radio is the key source of information for many Nigerians not only
because it is easily accessible both in the cities and the village, but
also most of the programmes are in local languages. Apart from
newspaper and magazine there are over two hundred daily and
weekly newspapers and most of Nigerian magazine are printed
monthly. According to Media fact Radio recorded highest penetration
with 82.9 percent in 2011, TV 80.6 percent, newspaper 25.7 percent
(Mediafact: 2011). This shows the power of radio in Nigeria is above
other medium. There are several regulatory body that regulates the
affairs of news media in Nigeria among them are: National
Broadcasting Commission (NBC) regulates broadcast media i.e.
Radio and Television, Nigerian press Council (NPC) regulates
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journalism practice i.e. Newspaper and magazine while Advertising
Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) regulates all media
advertising.
1.2 METHODOLOGY
In order to analyze the meaning and violation of journalism ethics in
Nigeria, the research proposes to use discourse analysis as research
method. Teun van Dijk defined discourse analysis as an analytical
research that “primarily studies the way social power abuse,
dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by
text and talk in the social and political context” (Van Dijik, 2001). As
such, the central aim of discourse analysis is to understand, expose,
and ultimately resist social inequality. The concept of discourse
analysis has become vague, either meaning almost nothing, or being
used with more precise, but rather different, meanings in different
contexts. But, in many cases, underlying the word „discourse‟ is the
general idea that language is structured according to different
patterns that people’s utterances follow when they take part in
different domains of social life, familiar examples being “medical
discourse” and “political discourse”. “Discourse analysis” is the
analysis of these patterns (Jorgensen and Phillips, 2002:2-16).
1.3 JOURNALISM ETHICS
Ethics means morality or study of morality, ethics is a branch of
philosophy that involves systematizing, defending and recommending
concepts of right and wrong conduct, often addressing disputes of
moral mixture. In other word, Ethics is the branch of philosophy that
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studies human actions in terms of being right or wrong, licit or illicit
(Pate, 2013).Media and Ethics: Journalism Ethics in Nigerian News
Media DOI: 10.9790/0837-2112030106 [Link] 3| Page
According to Washington Ethical Society, ethics defines the elements
essential to human well-being and proposes principles to be used as
guidelines for generating an ethical culture. Ethics also refers to the
specific values, standards, rules, and agreements people adopt for
conducting their lives (WES, 2012). Linda Thornton (2012) defined
ethics as fundamentally about acting beyond our own self-interests.
Another definition says that ethics are rules of conduct or principles of
morality that point us towards the right or best way to act in a
situation (Dominick, 1998). Ethics may be seen as being concerned
with that which holds society together or provide the stability and
security essential to the living of human life (Brown, 2011: 9). Ethics
is the analysis, evaluation and promotion of what constitutes correct
conduct and virtuous character in light of the best available principles
(Ward, 2013).The term “ethics comes from the Greek word” “ethos”
which means “character” or what a right-thinking person is or does in
order to have a good character. It deals with choosing among the
good or bad options that individual faces. It may see as being
concerned with that which holds society or a profession together or
provides stability and security essential to social or professional
cohesion. It involves thinking about morality, moral problems and
moral judgements. It deals with what obligation we owe or to
responsibilities we have toward our brothers, and what we should do
make the world better place than we find it (Black and Roberts,
2011:2-5). In line with the above mentioned definition of ethics, some
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key ideas were deducted to shade more light about the concept of
ethics. These ideas are: values, rights, duties, rules, and morality.
Starting with values, values is an important and lasting beliefs or
ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or bad
and desirable or undesirable. Values have major influence on a
person’s behaviour and attitude and serve as broad guidelines in all
situations. Values has four influential sources; parents, peer groups,
role models and societal institutions. Rights are conforming with or
conformable to justice, law, or morality. Duties; are obligation to take
specific actions. Rules; are guidelines upon which an individual acts
and provide resolutions in the face of ethical dilemmas. Relationship;
are connections of one individuals to another in a web of mutuality.
While morality; is a beliefs or ideas about what is right and wrong and
about how people should behave. All these aspect –values, rights,
duties, rules, relationship and morality has interconnection and when
talking about ethics, these aspects are in front line.
1.4 ETHICAL DILEMMA OF JOURNALISM
Ethical theory serves as the foundation for ethical solutions to the
difficult situations people encounter in life. In fact, for centuries,
philosophers have come up with theoretical ways of telling right from
wrong and for giving guidelines about how to live and act ethically.
There are different theories of ethics provided by different scholars.
The most popular ones are provided by Merrill, almost all the ethical
theories can be placed under two main categories i.e. pragmatic and
humanistic.
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Pragmatic ethics, Emphasis is on achieving success, on reaching a
goal potentially, with relatively little concern for how that success is
achieved. (Merrill, 2004:19-20) consider this a Machiavellian but
pragmatic morality in which end justified the means. The idea is that
the job of journalist is to provide as truthful account as possible and
that the end may justify the means. Humanistic ethics, Emphasis is
on doing what's best for society. Humanistic ethics, which
overwhelmingly dominate ethical theory, are more obviously
unselfish. The goals of ethics here are virtue and social improvement
rather than personal success. Merrill 1997 explains this category of
ethics is focused on either self-improvement of the journalist or on a
concern for others, particularly sources and audience. This can be
categorizing into three phases –deontological, teleological and
personalist ethics.
1.5 CODE OF ETHICS FOR NIGERIAN JOURNALISTS
A journalistic code of ethics refers to a set of principles of
professional conduct that are adopted and guarded by journalists
themselves (McQuail, 2005: 173). Nigerian journalists with approval
of Nigerian Press Organization and Nigerian Press Council came up
with new ethical code of journalism in 1996. The council claimed that
the old code of ethics was deficient in many vital areas. The new
code was adopted and ratified. The new codes are fifteen ranging
from editorial independence to press freedom and responsibility.
(NPO: 1996).The most important part of this code is an editorial
independence; the code says decision concerning the content of
news should be responsibility of professional journalist. Accuracy and
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fairness is also another important angle of the code. Public has a
right to know. Factual accurate, balanced and fair reporting is the
ultimate objective of good journalism and the basis of earning public
trust and confidence. A journalist should refrain from publishing
inaccurate and misleading information. Where such information has
been inadvertently published, prompt correction should be made. A
journalist must hold the right of reply as a cardinal rule of practice. In
the course of his duties, a journalist should strive to separate facts
from conjecture and comment. Decency is in the front of Nigerian
code of ethics, the code of ethics emphasizes that; journalist should
dress and comport himself in a manner that conforms to public taste.
A journalist should refrain from using offensive, Media and Ethics:
Journalism Ethics in Nigerian News Media DOI: 10.9790/0837-
2112030106 [Link] 4| Page abusive, or vulgar
language. A journalist should not present lurid details, either in words
or picture, of violence, sexual acts, abhorrent or horrid scenes. In
cases involved in personal grief or shock, enquiries should be carried
out and approaches made with sympathy and discretion. Unless itis
in the furtherance of the public’s right to know, a journalist should
generally avoid identifying relatives or friends of persons convicted or
accused of crime. Last but not the list, the code made clarification
about discrimination; journalist should refrain from making pejorative
reference to a person’s ethnic group, religion, sex, or to any physical
or mental illness or handicap. The other sectors that the code looks
into include: reward and gratification, violence, children and minors,
public interest, plagiarism among others. Nigerian code of ethics was
derived from international code even though there are some
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differences, but share most common element including the principles
of truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public
accountability as these apply to the acquisition of newsworthy
information and its subsequent dissemination to the public. Some
journalistic Codes of Ethics, notably the European ones, also include
a concern with discriminatory references in news based on race,
religion, sexual orientation and physical or mental disabilities. In
nutshell, code of ethics for Nigerian Journalists is more or less similar
with the code in UK and the USA. It is the duty of every journalist to
observe its provisions.
1. EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE: Decisions concerning the content of
news should be the responsibility of a professional journalist.
2. ACCURACY AND FAIRNESS
The public has a right to know. Factual, accurate balance and
fair reporting is the ultimate objective of good journalism and
the basis of earning public trust and confidence.
A journalist should refrain from publishing inaccurate and
misleading information. Where such information has been
inadvertently published, prompt correction should be made. A
journalist must hold the right of reply as a cardinal rule of
practice.
In the course of his duties a journalist should strive to separate
facts from conjecture and comment.
3. PRIVACY
As a general rule, a journalist should respect the privacy of
individuals and their families unless it affects public interest.
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A. Information on the private life of an individual or his family should only
be published if it impinges on public interest.
B. Publishing of such information about an individual as mentioned
above should be deemed justifiable only if it is directed at:
Exposing crime or serious misdemeanor;
Exposing anti-social conduct;
Protecting public health, morality and safety;
Preventing the public from being misled by some statement or
action of the individual concerned.
4. PRIVILEGE / NON-DISCLOSURE
A journalist should observe the universally accepted principle of
confidentiality and should not disclose the source of information
obtained in confidence.
A journalist should not breach an agreement with a source of
information obtained as “off- the-record” or as “back ground
information.
5. DECENCY
A journalist should dress and comport himself in a manner that
conforms with public taste.
A journalist should refrain from using offensive, abusive or vulgar
language.
A journalist should not present lurid details, either in words or picture,
of violence, sexual acts, abhorrent or horrid scenes.
In case involving personal grief or shock, enquiries should be carried
out and approaches made with sympathy and discretion.
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Unless it is in the furtherance of the public’s right to know, a journalist
should generally avoid identifying relatives or friends of persons
convicted or accused of crime.
6. DISCRIMINATION
A journalist should refrain from making pejorative reference to a
person’s ethnic group, religion, sex or to any physical or mental
illness or handicap.
7. REWARDAND GRATIFICATION
A journalist should neither solicit nor accept bribe, gratification or
patronage to suppress or publish information.
To demand payment for the publication of news is inimical to the
notion of news as a fair, accurate, unbiased and factual report of an
event.
8. VIOLENCE:
A journalist should not present or report acts of violence, armed
robberies, terrorist activities or vulgar display of wealth in a manner
that glorifies such acts in the eyes of the public.
9. CHILDREN AND MINORS: A journalist should not identify, either by
name or picture, or interview children under the age of 16 who are
involved in cases concerning sexual offences, crimes and rituals or
witchcraft either as victims, witnesses or defendants.
10. ACCESS TO INFORMATION: A journalist should strive to employ
open and honest means in the gathering of information. Exceptional
methods may be employed only when the public interest is at stake.
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11. PUBLIC INTEREST: A journalist should strive to enhance national
unity and public good.
12. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:A journalist should promote universal
principles of human rights, democracy, justice, equity, peace and
international understanding.
13. PLAGIARISM
A journalist should not copy, wholesale or in part, other people’s work
without attribution and/or consent.
14. COPYRIGHT
Where a journalist reproduces a work, be it in print, broadcast,
art work or design, proper a be should be accorded the author.
A journalist should abide by all rules of copyright, established
by national and international laws and conventions.
15. PRESS FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
A journalist should strive at all-times to enhance press freedom and
responsibility.
1.6 FINDING AND DISCUSSION
Sixty-three news stories were investigated from Leadership
newspapers for the period of one month. Having highlighted the
ethics and examined the Nigerian Journalist, the ethics are not totally
obeyed by them. The issues have however been a concern based on
the ethics meant to be followed by journalists in Nigeria.
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Discrimination is among the Nigerian code of ethics, but finding on
this research revealed that Nigerian journalists neglected this code.
When the issue concerning Northerner, the Southern newspapers
report the issue in bad tone and exaggerated manner, same to
Northern press if the issue concern southerner, the reason behind
this is that; South is dominated by Christians while North is
dominated by Muslims. This means that ethnicity and religion play a
vital role in Nigerian press. A good example is that of letter from
former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo to the immediate past
President Jonathan Goodluck. The letter occupied front pages of
Nigerian Press in December 2013. The title reads: “Obasanjo to
Jonathan: Read My Lips before It Is Too Late”. This letter also
violated the code of „Public interest‟ the code says: “A journalist
should strive to enhance national unity and public good” the letter
creates tension among Nigerian citizens because the former
president pinpoint out that; the Goodluck Jonathan is planning to train
the gang that can help him to win 2015 general election and fight
against northern elites. Also in the reply of the letter published in
Leadership of December 11, 2013, indecent language was used. The
code of „Decent‟ says: “A journalist should refrain from using
offensive, abusive, or vulgar language”. The title of reply from
presidency reads: “You‟re A Malicious, Indecent Hypocrite,
Presidency Tells Obasanjo”. The question here is that; why
Leadership choose to take this angle as their headline? Editorial
Independence most of the times is subjected to negative ownership.
Most media organizations in Nigeria are not being independent of
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their publications due to the fact that these media houses are
privately owned by important personalities in the society or by
Government. Dare pointed out that; politicians who can afford to run a
media house can dictate what goes into the pages of the newspaper
(Dare, 2010: 2).Ethics are important because they prescribe
acceptable codes of professional behaviour. But in itself, an ethic
code of conduct can of itself do nothing. The responsibility for serving
the public rests squarely on individual reporters and their editors.
According to (Akinfeleye, 2003: 63) the challenge facing journalists
has less to do with the failure to abide by the ethics of the profession.
The challenge is to do a good job of informing and educating the
Nigeria public. To do this, journalist must commit themselves to two
fundamental objectives. Firstly, we must be better informed than the
public we seek to serve. An uninformed or a poorly-informed reporter
is a dangerous creature let loose on the land. Secondly, we must
sharpen our editorial judgement. Good editorial judgment is a function
of both experience and broad-mindedness. The rush to publish has
left a lot to be desired in our editorial judgement. We need to hasten
slowly because what is published can never be unpublished. In the
words of Risley (2001) when a journalist is confronted with ethical
problems he or she should consider the following principles. When
there are two extreme positions in a situation, he or she should seek
the middle ground known by Aristotle as the “Golden mean”. Act only
as you would wish others would act. Consider the utilitarianism of our
actions, that is, our action should produce the greatest balance of
good over evil. Apply the veil of ignorance, that is, make ethical
decisions as if you are equal with all members of the society and
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lastly treat people in the same way you would expect to be treated.
As the research revealed, Nigerian journalists violate journalism
ethics, especially on editorial independence because of the
ownership pattern. So also, Nigerian journalist engaged in
discrimination violation, because of the complex nature of the country
in terms of religion and multi-ethnicity. Media and Ethics: Journalism
Ethics in Nigerian News Media DOI:10.9790/0837-
[Link] 5| Page
1.7 CONCLUSION
This study was meant to explore the Journalism ethics in Nigerian
news media. Discourse analysis was used as yardstick. Major finding
of this research revealed that; Nigerian journalists are not obeyed the
codes; journalists are expecting to be moral-crusaders but some time
they are doing otherwise.
As the research exposed the reason behind this, is the complex
nature of the Nigerian state. Nigeria has over two hundred and fifty
ethnic group and religions. Journalist from opposite part of the
country opposed each other in their publications. According to Oso,
the factors that can lead to unethical practices in Nigeria are: poor
technical knowledge, conflict of interests, ownership pattern and
control, pressure of the market, poor pay, weak professional
regulation, and loose organizational policies and control (Oso, 2007:
150). These factors that lead to unethical in journalism field is not
only experienced in Nigeria, the problem is similar in many third world
countries. Ethics in the media is, at its essence, about duty. It comes
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with concepts of freedom and responsibility. It comprises a set of
principles and rules determined by members of the profession,
preferably in cooperation with public opinion, to allow most if not all of
the media to perform a better service. Unethical conduct, immorality
or negative values are devoid of ethical benchmarks. They are
dangerous social evils. They can be damaging to the society, to the
extent of leading to a failed state. And, like all forms of things that are
wrong, the dangers are multifaceted and some of them concrete
enough (Pate, 2013). In light with this, for any society that want to
develop code of ethics need to be apply; media has a vital role to play
on this. There is need for the other researchers to explore Nigerian
code in broadcast media houses because it’s the major source of
information for Nigerians, not only exploring the problem but to
provide possible solutions to salvage the situation.
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