Ethical Standards for Media Professionals

 

Media coverage of crime-related topics, especially when they regard heinous crimes, is often a tricky issue. On the one hand, there is the curiosity of the public, which is often triggered by the media that provides in-depth details of the facts, as if to present a horror fiction. On the other hand, there are the rights of the victims, but also of the suspects and the accused people. There is – and must be – a boundary between freedom of the press and these rights, the most important of which is the presumption of innocence.

Ethical Standards are needed – and have been developed for this purpose – to help media professionals report on criminal cases respecting the presumption of innocence and observing the privacy of suspects and accused, their families, other relatives and the community.

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