Ethical Issues in News Reporting With Particular Reference to the Ethiopian Herald Newspaper
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Date
2005-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This research is a pilot study, or a kind done as experiment, intended to identify ethical
problems in news reporting with particular reference to The Ethiopian Herald
Newspaper. In conducting the research, the following major questions were taken in to
account. What are the ethical problems in news reporting in The Ethiopian Herald
newspaper? And what are the causes for these ethical problems? The research method
employed for the study is content analysis. Sampling population for the analysis was
taken from issues of The Ethiopian Herald published between March and August 2005.
Some 55 Election news stories printed during the stated period were drawn from the
sampling population as unit of analysis. Questionnaire and interview were also employed
as supportive instruments of data gathering for the study. Accordingly, the final results of
the study indicate in the first place that the majority of the election news stories published
in The Ethiopian Herald do not fulfill one of the major ethical principles of journalism,
fairness. Secondly, the journalists working for the paper carry out their journalistic duties
under the interference of their employers, government officials. Finally, it was possible to
see through the study that censorship, which is prohibited by the constitution of the land,
Article 29 (3a), is practiced by the state paper under study.
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Ethiopian Herald