On Our Country At This Stage Of Journalistic Ethics

The moral code of the journalist profession is the set of normative criteria regulating the relationships among the journalist profession, the society, the news media and individual journalism professionals. Various aspects of the journalist moral code are as follows: a) it is a social ideology characterized by our times and by a developing and changing nature; b) it is affected by the positions the news media take; compared with other moral codes, it is characterized by a more distinct class nature and political nature; c) it has a more dramatic social nature; d) it shows a particular restraining and self-disciplinary nature. The moral code of the socialist journalist profession mainly includes: serving the people heart and soul; journalists should take a steadfast political position and should offer guidance to the public with their correct opinions; they should abide by the constitution, the law and organizational discipline, and should keep the secrets of the party and the state; journalists should possess a good habit of moral thinking, a work style of incorruptibility and self-discipline and a spirit of unity and coordination within the industry.As for the status quo of the morality of the journalist profession in this country, its mainstream is good; and journalists enjoy a high level of education and good political qualities, and possess a spirit of devotion to and respect for their profession. But being influenced by the market economy, they also manifest a number of problems: affected by corruptive mercenary thoughts, their values orientations are alienated; suffering from commercialist shocks, the journalism industry shows tendencies towards bad taste and low-grade entertainment; seeking self-interests and "journalism with compensation" on the part of news media is rampant; journalists lack a sufficient sense of social responsibility, and inaccurate reporting and fake news pieces appear from time to time. The main reason is that journalists have not made a good study of the moral code of the profession or of theories to be applied the their work; due to encroachment from the market economy, some journalists have lost their way in the intense competition. The government and the public have not kept sufficient supervision over media criticism; bad work styles and lifestyles within the party and in the society have had a negative impact on media professionals.In view of the status quo, the comprehensive improvement of our journalism morality requires: 1) a constant learning process: to study important ideas such as "the three represents", Marxist views on journalism and the moral code of the journalism profession and professional theoretical knowledge; and to enhance the professional spirit by studying the good habits and ideas from outstanding journalists both ancient and modern, and at home and abroad; 2) to fight against corruption and to maintain self-discipline is the fundamental way to formulate a moral code for the journalism profession; 3) comparable laws need to be worked out, supervision over mechanisms of social checks and media rights need to be strengthened, and "hard" improvement of the morality of the journalism profession must be carried out; and 4) scientific regimes of management over media work have to be constructed.