Karnati Varun ReddyAIR 7 · CSE 2018 · 170 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening
Investigative reporting like "Panama Leaks" have exposed corruption, tax evasion by rich etc corrupt practices furthering public and national interest.
However there are certain ethical issues involved -
Body · points
(i) Right to Privacy vs Public Interest e.g. Nira Radia tapes regarding telecom allocation though abridged privacy served huge Public Interest . but scope of misuse is huge
(ii) Journalists resorting to unethical practices like cheating, deception, lies, even paying prostitutes to extract information
(iii) Indirectly taking up positions of investigative agency can lead to chaos, lack of security if this activity is rampant
(iv) Reputation loss - if falsely allegations are raised e.g:- In Panama leaks certain accounts are genuine but their public image got damaged
Safeguards to prevent misuse are
(a) Model code of conduct for investigative journalists with an independent regulatory body enforcing it
(b) Exercising their professional judgement of rightness / wrongness of displaying the information
Close · a summary
∴ educating values & through case studies investigative journalists for better decision making
Therefore investigative journalism spirits are driven towards public interest