Ethical and Legal Issues Consideration in Public Affairs Reporting : A Study of Parliamentary Reporting in Nigeria

Abstract

Every profession or avocation is guided by ethics and law. Ethics is a code of conduct guiding the behavior of professionals in the course of their study. Law, on the other hand, is a regulation which has to be obeyed by the society. Both ethics and law are aimed at achieving a decent society and serve the public interest. Journalism as a profession deals with news gathering and reporting. In reporting any event including of course public affairs, the journalist should adhere strictly to the basic ethical standard of reporting accurately, fairly and objectively, being truthful, maintenance of social responsibility, avoid invasion of privacy and sycophancy. As a matter of fact, a breach of the code of conduct could lead to violation of the law. For instance invasion of a citizen's privacy could warrant court action. Poor parliamentary reporting could also lead to contempt of parliament which could send a reporter or editor to jail. It is against this backdrop that this paper examines ethics and legal issues in public affairs reporting with particular interest in parliamentary reporting. Public affairs’ reporting is reporting government issues and government functions. As an arm of government, the parliament falls within the ambit of public affairs reporting. The purpose of such coverage is to keep the public informed about activities of the parliament and set agenda of discussion on any legislation being debated. Hence agenda setting was used as the theoretical standpoint of the study. While acknowledging the role of the press as the watchdog of those in government, the paper enjoins the press to abide by the laid down ethical standard of the profession as well as such laws as defamation, privacy, contempt of court, contempt of parliament, e.t.c. so as not to run their organizations into trouble.