The Ethics of Photojournalism

Just like any other career or activity, photojournalism has its own set of ethical rules that all photojournalists follow. One of the important governing bodies in the photojournalist career is National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics. This is a set of written rules of ethics that each photojournalist should follow if they want to keep their job as a photographer. One of the rules on the Code of Ethics is “Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.” Basically what this means is that when a photojournalist edits his or her photos with Photoshop or any other photo editing software they should consider the fact that the information presented in the picture cannot be altered and the details of the photo cannot be changed.

One of the most recent examples when the NPPA Code of Ethics was now followed was in a photo taken by John Tlumacki. John is one the photojournalists who works for The Boston Globe. He was present at the scene of the recent Boston marathon bombings in April of 2013. During his news gathering there he took a photo of an injured women lying on the road. The original photo (left) shows all the details and horror of the bombings. The photo shows that a woman is severely injured and part of her leg along with her pants is missing. The editor at The Boston Globe thought that the image was too dramatic and horrific for the readers of the paper to see, so they edited the photo and resulted in the photo on the right. In the edited photo they manipulated the detail of the photo by removing the wound from the leg and covering with pants. This photo raised a lot of controversy among photojournalists and people who found out about the edited photo.

 

Photo By: John Tlumacki

Image Source: http://miapappalardojournalismehtics.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/daily-news-doctored-front-page-photo-from-boston-bombing/

 

One of the good questions to ask is “What would I do if I was in the situation that John was in?” One of the ethical values that I have on my map is honesty. I think that one of the most important qualities in the person is honesty. I like it a lot when other people are honest with me and also I try to be always honest with them. I think that there is a lot less conflicts and problems between people when they are honest to each other. When people tell the truth right away to each other even if it is the bad truth it could be the way to solve the conflict. In John’s case what I would do is keep the photo the way it was taken. I think in order for a photographer to be honest he or she has to keep the details of the photo. It is important for the viewers to see exactly what happened so the photos cannot be manipulated.