ABUSES OF THE MEDIA

The class had quite an interactive and interesting session with Barrister Tomi Vincent, Esq. on the abuses of the media and I want to share what I understood from the whole discourse with you below.

In any society, the media plays an important role; it is a means through which many positive  societal changes can be effected. However, it can also be a tool for abuse, if there are no checks and balances in place. Thankfully, media ethics can be used to curb these abuses. There are four areas which pose ethical dilemmas for the journalist: fairness, truthfulness, privacy and responsibility.  These five philosophical principles serve as some sort of guide in the application of ethical decisions:

1.       Aristotle’s golden mean which is more or less a philosophy of moderation and compromise.

2.      Kant’s Categorical imperative, which poses the question of, ‘what if everyone acted this way?’ It provokes one to think about principles which one would want to see applied universally.

3.      Mill’s principle of  utility, which is all about seeking the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

4.      Rawl’s veil of ignorance which is a strong advocate of an egalitarian society.

5.      The Judeo-christian philosophy of, ‘love your neighbor, as yourself.”

Several professional media bodies such as: APCON, NUJ, NGE, NIPR, NPC, have ethical codes of conduct which govern their practices. Other methods, which have been adopted as legal means of curbing the excesses of the media include the setting up of various laws such as: privacy law, obscenity law, defamation law, sedition law, and copyright law.

Without mincing words, it is clear that checking the abuses in the media sector is of utmost importance.