NCJ Number
76872
Date Published
1981
Length
55 pages
Annotation
The views of editors and news directors regarding ethical standards for press-police cooperation are presented and discussed.
Abstract
Forty-nine responses were received from questionnaires sent to 100 editors and broadcasters, inquiring on various aspects of press-police cooperation. The first question in the survey had subqueries, all predicated on the acceptance by a news organization of an invitation from law enforcement officials to accompany police on a raid, in the course of which reporters or camera crews observed criminal activity in progress. The second question dealt with independent investigations by the media that uncover governmental corruption or private rackets that victimize the public, and the third question inquired about how closely news personnel covering police headquarters or the courts should work with the people whose activities they cover in exchanging information and what steps were taken to guard against entangling alliances. A fourth principal line of inquiry in the questionnaire was designed to establish the judgment of news executives on whether it was ever justifiable for press representatives to assume false identities, conduct scam operations, or otherwise commit illegal acts in pursuit of information that would demonstrate defects in existing laws or alert the community to malpractices in need of correction. The final line of inquiry was aimed at eliciting the philosophical approach that guided news executives in their assessment of all the specific interrogations. Individual and collective responses are reported, with illustrations of dilemmas posed by actual incidents interspersed.