Ethics and Freedom of the Press

Journalists should have the freedom to report on everything that they want, and especially if the public have the right to know about a certain event. They should have that freedom because it's their job to do that. That's like saying to a janitor to clean a room except for a couple patches right in the middle. However journalistic freedom should not be unlimited because it can violate some people's rights to privacy. Some of the different responsibilities that accompany having this freedom is to not violate anybody's right to privacy, and to follow up a story if the circumstances change and the situation is nolonger the same as it was when they made the story at the start. Also, they shouldn't have any form of bias or stereotype in their reporting. Ex: reporting on all stories of crime rather than just those concerning a certain demographic.
I think journalistic freedoms are always being violated around the world, especially in communist countries like China, Russia and North Korea where the government doesn't want journalists to let the public know about everything that is happening around the country. I think in Canada the press is fairly free especially since you often see people in the news criticizing different members of the government. It seems free in the community. But in the school it might not be because the newsletters are all written by teachers, it might be interesting to see what changes if students were to write the newsletters...

By B.L.