Editorial . . . . . .
It is important to consider how to uphold ethical norms in respect to how journalists work. Every journalist, whether freelance or employed by a variety of media outlets, has their own set of ethical guidelines for the sharing of news, information, and knowledge. There are fundamental ethical rules and principles, such as truth, accuracy, and objectivity, which serve as the cornerstones of journalistic ethics, but they are not always clear, and their cultural underpinnings make them complex in practice. Issues relating to openness, verification, responsibility to the media organization and to citizens, authenticity, and the objectivity of news in providing a balanced viewpoint are included in these pillars. Truth and telling the truth can be seen as a journalist’s primary duty; truth should not only be understood clearly but also not be divorced from responsibility, especially when telling the truth is sensitive, provocative, or could incite violence. Presenting the truth is a highly challenging task because it has many facets. The public still relies on newspapers and other media outlets to provide real news and information to the public despite the development of various types of social media and news and information distribution. As a result, they have a higher need to uphold loyalty to the country’s population. As a result, the process of verification, while taking some time, becomes a crucial component that requires a standard code. Independence is a key component of journalism’s ethical standards. That is, there must be a distinct line between management and the news team, and journalists must be protected from being coerced by sources or intimidated by authority. They should act as watchdogs rather than assassins in the spirit of independence, particularly for those with unjustified positions of power and authority. While it is crucial to maintain the “news” important, engaging, and therefore “newsworthy,” it should also allow for public commentary and answers because this only shows how sincere the media outlets are about reporting the facts. Journalists must be let to use their moral conscience as a form of societal responsibility in addition to following the established ethical standards of behaviour because they are endowed with the faculty of judgment that “intuitively informs what is right and wrong, good and bad.” Citizens as disseminators or receptors must exercise social responsibility because there is always the risk of disseminating unverified news, which has the potential to cause violence, including epistemic violence. This is especially true in the evolution of citizens becoming “reporters” themselves, especially via YouTube, web portals, etc. As a result, journalists have a bigger social and moral obligation.