Journalist ethics and medical ethics

Every profession requires ethics, but there are two professions that are intrinsically demanding of facing the harshness of life: journalism and medicine. One heals the body. The other heals the soul.

Therefore, the ethics of a journalist and the ethics of a doctor, from a certain perspective, have many similarities. They can both bring good news to a destiny. A family. A clan. But sometimes because of irresponsibility, because personal interests are placed above professional ethics, they can destroy everything, causing terrible suffering to many people.

Many newspapers continuously publish stories about artists' private lives to attract readers. Illustrative photo, source: internet.

But if a doctor is unprofessional or violates professional ethics, he can only cause an “accident” to one patient. As for journalists, a lack of professional ethics not only destroys the fate of a person, but also indirectly destroys an entire family, causing injustice to many people.

There has been a lot of false information in the press that has made farmers miserable, such as the story of "meningitis caused by eating lychees" - immediately lychee growers in Bac Giang that year suffered heavy losses, even if given away for free, the crop still did not sell; the story of "corn in the Mekong Delta is grown and boiled with chemicals" that makes farmers in this region have to eat corn instead of meals; the story of eating grapefruit causing cancer or the rumor that red tilapia contains banned substances...

Even poet Tran Dang Khoa, who is usually a very calm person, had to say that he was afraid when interacting with some young reporters, because they were enthusiastic but very inexperienced, and often wanted to impose their subjective thoughts on others. Once, a reporter accused the poet of saying, “Poet Tran Dang Khoa said that beauty queens have no tongues.” And since then, he has been afraid of young reporters.

It is necessary to recall such unpleasant stories to see that it is reasonable to say that the role of mainstream information, official information is being overshadowed, while negative information, which smears society, overwhelms the good things. Too many websites have sprung up, exploiting the private lives of artists and forums in a sensational, vulgar and brazen way to attract readers. The fact that the Tri Thuc Tre Electronic Newspaper was fined 207 million VND and suspended for 3 months for publishing the article "Western girls and the 3 Ns are famous in the world" shows that the Ministry of Information and Communications is tightening the management process, one of the necessary efforts to revive healthy information flows in the press.

During his revolutionary career, President Ho Chi Minh always considered the press and journalists as a part of the revolutionary cause, a sharp weapon in the struggle for national independence and building a new life for the people. He advised: "Your pens are also sharp weapons in the cause of supporting the righteous and eliminating evil."

In a workshop held at the Academy of Journalism and Communication, comrade Nguyen The Ky - Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department said that besides journalists and press agencies working seriously and professionally, there are also many press agencies that perceive and handle information irresponsibly, leading to the appearance of some incorrect and unsatisfactory sources of information due to inexperience, poor political vision and poor professional ethics. Some reporters and newspapers take lightly the verification and authentication of sources of information, leading to the consequence of information being published in newspapers that is untrue and significantly affects the reputation of the press among the people.

THIEN NGOC

Vietnam Education Newspaper