Truth-telling, or veracity, can be defined as the avoidance of lying, deception, misrepresentation, and non-disclosure in interactions with society or information

related to the society or any population that the media might come in contact with.

What is a Journalistic Ethic?

Journalistic ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and of good practice as applicable to the specific challenges faced by journalists. Historically and currently, this subset of media ethics is widely known to journalists as their professional "code of ethics" or the "canons of journalism

What role does Telling have in this context?

When the society or any population that comes in contact with a specific branch of media, they Trust and depend on it to know news and information. Upholding that trust, it is of utmost importance that media disseminates information that is true, as the people have a right to know and understand what REALLY is happening around them. The truth may conflict with other values that the population believes in, but it is in the mere nature of this profession to challenge, and make sure that the truth, and truth alone prevails.

In terms of Public interest: Revelation of military secrets and other sensitive government information may be contrary to the public interest, even if it is true. However, public interest is not a term which is easy to define. In terms of Privacy : Salacious details of the lives of public figures is a central content element in many media. Publication is not necessarily justified simply because the information is true. Privacy is also a right, and one which conflicts with free speech. Fantasy. Fantasy is an element of entertainment, which is a legitimate goal of media content. Journalism may mix fantasy and truth, with resulting ethical dilemmas. In terms of Taste. Photo journalists who cover war and disasters confront situations which may shock the sensitivities of their audiences. For example, human remains are rarely screened. The ethical issue is how far should one risk shocking an audience's sensitivities in order to correctly and fully report the truth. Truth telling is crucial in media ethics as any opposition of truth telling is considered deception. Anything shown by the media whether print or video is considered to be original. When a statement is written in an article or a video is shown of a public official, it is the original truthful words of the individual official themselves.

The National Enquirer Issue :

The National Enquirer is an American supermarket tabloid now published by American Media Inc (AMI). Founded in 1926 the tabloid has gone through a variety of changes over the years. The Enquirer openly acknowledges that it will pay sources for tips, a practice generally frowned upon by the mainstream press. At least one prominent story, connected to the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case in 2002, had to be retracted after it was revealed that two informants had fabricated false information. The informants had been paid a large sum for the story This questioned the credibility of the magazine and its practice of paid informers, owing to this, circulation figures dropped and the image of the magazine in the public eye was diminished.

The Adnan Hajj photographs controversy (also called Reutersgate) involves digitally manipulated photographstaken by Adnan Hajj, a Lebanese freelance photographer based in the Middle East, who had worked for Reuters over a period of more than ten years. Hajj's photographs were presented as part of Reuters' news coverage of the 2006 Israel Lebanon conflict, but Reuters has admitted that at least two were significantly altered before being published

The first image was discovered on August 5, 2006 when blogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs wrote that the first image "shows blatant evidence of manipulation" Reuters "killed" the 'photograph' and released a statement that stated Hajj claimed to not have intentionally altered the photo but was trying to remove "dust marks

The second manipulated image was reported by the pseudonymous blogger "Dr. Rusty Shackleford" on his blog "the Jawa Report".Reuters captioned it as showing an Israeli F-16 fighter jet firing ground-attack missiles "during an air strike on Nabatiyeh", but the F-16 was actually deploying one defensive flare, and the original photograph showed only one flare. The photo had been doctored to increase the number of flares falling from the F16 from one to three, and misidentified them as missiles.

On August 6 2006, Reuters announced it would stop all cooperation with Adnan Hajj.Hajj claimed he had just been trying to remove dust marks, and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under. Critics point out that this is impossible, as Hajj's doctored image added an entire plume of smoke, duplicated several buildings, and showed a repeating pattern indicating that one plume of smoke was "cloned" several times. On August 7, Reuters decided to withdraw all 920 photos by Hajj from sale As of May 11, 2008, Reuters has removed all of Hajj's images from its site

Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought."Justice can be thought of as distinct from and more fundamental than benevolence, charity, mercy, ge nerosity, or compassion.

Democracy and media power mutually cooperate with each other. Had there been no media power, the very essence of democratic culture would have sunk. The media has made the voice of the common man significant, impacting social attitudes and democratic responsibility. If it wasnt for sustained public pressure arising out of media activism, perhaps a logical conclusion could never have been reached in cases like the Jessica Lall murder, the Priyadarshini Mattoo case and the high-profile Nitish Katara case

The Indian Constitution, while not mentioning the word "press", provides for "the right to freedom of speech and expression" (Article 19(1) a). However this right is subject to restrictions under sub clause (2), whereby this freedom can be restricted for reasons of "sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, preserving decency, preserving morality, in relation to contempt, court, defamation, or incitement to an offense". Laws such as the Official Secrets Act and Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act(PoTA) have been used to limit press freedom. Under PoTA, person could be detained for up to six months for being in contact with a terrorist or terrorist group. PoTA was repealed in 2006, but the Official Secrets Act 1923 continues.

Jessica Lal (19651999) was a model in New Delhi, who was working as a celebrity barmaid at a crowded socialite party when she was shot dead at around 2 am on 30 April 1999. Dozens of witnesses pointed to Siddharth Vashisht, also known as Manu Sharma, the son of Venod Sharma, a wealthy and influential Congressnominated Member of Parliament from Haryana, as the murderer. In the ensuing trial, Manu Sharma and a number of others were acquitted on 21 February 2006. Following intense media and public pressure, the prosecution appealed and the Delhi High Court conducted proceedings on a fast track with daily hearings conducted over 25 days. The trial court judgment was overturned, and Manu Sharma was found guilty of having murdered Lal. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on 20 December 2006.

Traditionally, modern, credibility has two key components: trustworthiness and expertise. Trustworthiness is based more on subjective factors. According to the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics, professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility. Two types of media credibility- source credibility and news medium credibility

Concerns in the newspaper industry, rising number of people turning to radio for news, and then about the number relying on television made arising studies of the credibility of a medium argue the advent of information and communication technology especially the Internet, is giving some impact to our daily life. Since the late 1990s when the Internet began providing new interactive environment of information that allowed users to seek information and communicate with others in ways never before possible, the concept of credibility has received considerable attention

The credibility of online and traditional media is becoming an increasingly important topic to understand in the field of communication, and various studies in different countries have reported different results about the Internet credibility. But, because of privacy issues, content accuracy, reliability, and other related concerns, some observers have predicted a trouble for news in future. Generally, because past researches revealed that people are less likely to rely on the media they do not perceived as credible.

The media in India has grown into an economic giant, it is considered the worlds most dynamic media industry and one of the fastest growing anywhere. In recent years, the media has lowered the quality of Indias public discourse. This is producing a growing, and potentially grave, crisis of credibility.

The Indian media now faces a serious crisis of credibility. If it does not reform itself, it will find its greatest asset getting rapidly devalued and eventually vanishing. Journalism will then cease to be all that makes it worthy and socially relevant: an honest, investigative, analytical, publicoriented and ethical pursuit.

The Wikipedia page for Freedom of Press defines it as Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials.

The Indian Constitution mentions that Article 19 (1) (a) which talks about freedom of expression is subject to reasonable restrictions under sub clause (2), whereby this freedom can be restricted for reasons of "sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, preserving decency, preserving morality, in relation to contempt, court, defamation, or incitement to an offense"

Laws such as the Official Secrets Act and Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (PoTA) have been used to limit press freedom.

Off-late freedom of expression, its boundaries and intentions have been questioned; what with a cartoonist being charged with sedition for having expressed his feelings about the country the best he could, by making a snarky caricature.
Where fairness is concerned, todays media makes judgments even before the final verdict of a case has been passed, thereby committing contempt of court and such.

There have been several cases of freedom of press or in the case of India where freedom of expression have been questioned in court. Some examples are:
In Tamil Nadu, 15 journalists were sentenced to 15 days simple imprisonment for alleged breach of privilege and contempt by the state Legislative Assembly. (2011)

The blogger Chyetanya Kunte was sent a legal notice by NDTV for suggesting that Barkha Duttas reports of the Mumbai siege might have endangered lives. This incident got the public to question the freedom of press and there were demonstrations of anger with howls of protest about NDTVs bullying tactics, and defences of a bloggers right to free speech. (2011)

The Press Freedom Index is compiled by Reporters Without Borders every year. The index uses 44 different criteria ranging from censorship of news media to physical attacks on journalists, and the ability of the media to investigate and criticise and reflects the degree of freedom that journalists, news media, and netizens enjoy in each country and the efforts made by the authorities to respect and ensure respect for this freedom, the US organisation said.

This year, Indias ranking fell to 131 out of 179 from 122 last year. In India, RwB pointed to the exposure of violence of journalist as a result of the on-going conflicts in Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh, as well as intimidation of journalists by mafia groups in the country's biggest cities. However the authorities were no better, they warned, pointing to the dangerous implications of the Information technology Rules 2011 introduced last year and which requires Internet firms to remove harassing, obscene, libellous and other forms of content or risk prosecution. Foreign journalists were also impacted, with troubles obtaining visas, and pressure to give the country positive coverage, the organisation said.

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top position was shared by Finland and Norway, followed jointly by Estonia and Netherlands. Eritrea remained at the bottom position, a position it has held since 2007

Indian Express Newspapers v. Union of India speaking about the utility of freedom of press the court observes:The expression freedom of the press has not been issues in article 19 but it is comprehended within article 19(1)(a). The expression means freedom from interference from authority which would have the effect of the interference with the content nd the circulation of the newspapers and cannot be any interference with that freedom in the name of public interest. Freedom of press is the heart of social and political intercourse it is the primary duty of the courts to up hold the freedom of the press and in validate all laws or administrative actions with interfere with it contrary to the constitutional mandate.

In Indian Express v. Union of India, it has been held that the press plays a very significant role in the democratic machinery. The courts have duty to uphold the freedom of press and invalidate all laws and administrative actions that abridge that freedom. Freedom of press has three essential elements. They are: 1. freedom of access to all sources of information, 2. freedom of publication, and 3. freedom of circulation.

In Romesh Thapper v. State of Madras, a law banning entry and circulation of journal in a state was held to be invalid . The Court held that that there can be no doubt that freedom of speech and expression includes freedom of propagation of ideas, and that freedom is ensured by the freedom of circulation. A law which authorizes imposition of restrictions on grounds of public safety or the maintenance of public order falls outside the scope of the authorized restrictions under clause (2) and therefore void and unconstitutional.