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Keeping the above objectives in mind, it is important community. With citizens being more active and
that the media play a constructive role in society. It vigilant, the media's coverage of news is becoming
should provide balanced reports without being biased more independent of the government now.
on any issue. A balanced report covers all the
perspectives of a story or issue in a rational manner Media Ethics and Accountability
without forcing its opinion on the readers or viewers. The main aim of the media is to give people
The report coverage should be such that the reader information on matters of public interest. The media
should be able to form his or her own opinion. should present such information correctly, decently

The media can give a balanced report only when it is and in an unbiased manner. To do this, the media must
independent. It should not be under the control or follow a code of ethics.
influence of anybody in the coverage of its news. In In India the media form their own codes of ethics. But
most of the democracies, laws ensure freedom of the the government may order the removal of certain
press to a large extent. It enables the media and the parts from books, movies, etc., which it considers
citizens to access information on government policies offensive, immoral or politically dangerous. In other
and its functioning. words, the government may censor books, movies,
etc. Usually, the following principles are included in
Wow Fact codes of media ethics.

The Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI) is an Maintaining accuracy and fairness: The media should
act of Parliament which allows private not publish or broadcast information that is incorrect
citizens to request information from a public
or misleading or distorted. All the different views on
authority.
an issue should be presented. And no particular view
should be favoured. Preferably, information should be
We come across news events which are covered verified before it is made public, especially if it is likely
differently in various newspapers. Each newspaper to arouse ill feeling between communities or damage
tends to project the same news event from an angle somebody's reputation.
which is different from that of the others. Thus, the Respecting people's privacy: The media should
media appears to be independent to cover a news respect people's privacy. A person's identity and
event in any way that it feels is appropriate. But in details about his or her family, personal life, religion,
reality, the media is not completely independent. caste, etc... should not be made known unless it is
The reasons for this are as follows: necessary to do so in the interest of the public.
Control of government on the media, i.e., the Anything said by a person should not be recorded
government imposes censorship on the media without the speaker's knowledge and approval unless

Influence of the people who own the media houses it is necessary to do so on legal ground or for some
other good reason.
AI Fact Technology Literacy Protecting the interests of the nation and the society:
The media should be very cautious while presenting
Automated journalism, called ‘’robot journalism’’, uses
any news or information that may threaten the
AI-powered natural language generation algorithms to
turn data into news stories, images, videos and security and unity of the nation or harm the society.
visualisations. Then we can share these stories through For example, information on disputes between
platforms for automated journalism. religious, racial or cultural groups should be verified
before being made public. Such information should be
The government uses censorship to control the
presented in such a way that it does not cause violent
contents published by the media. The government can
reactions.
censor any form of media, including films, if it violates
national security, portrays women in a manner that Correcting errors and allowing replies: When an error
outrages their modesty or incites hate against a is detected in any information given by the media, the

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