Violation Of Code Of Ethics
The Society of Professional Journalist’s Code of Ethics states that journalists should be honest and courageous while they “seek truth and report it”. Just last week, Fox news shared an article with the title “Paris attacks prompt fears France’s Muslim “no-go” zones incubating jihad”, blaming terrorist Muslims and extreme Jihadists for designating areas just for themselves where anti-Muslims and French officers are not allowed to go in to. Not only that, but also following the attack on the buildings of the French Charlie Hebdo newspaper by terrorist Muslims from Al-Qaed’s section in Yemen, Fox News started spreading rumors and myths regarding the Muslim “no-go zones”. Xenophobia is a major part of the incident, but what is vital to notice here is that Fox News lied about the Muslim “no-go zones”. Those areas do not exist, and the facts represented by Fox News are all placed under the category of “false information” and convey nothing at all, but a distortion of reality.
The author of the article, Steve Emerson, violates the code of ethics, so that even European politicians and the American Journalist himself, Bill O’Reilly, decided to avoid involvement in such a case scenario. Another item on the code of ethics is to “minimize harm”. Regardless of the opinions and the harm it may cause, Fox News published the article online accusing Muslims of violence and of holding on to the Sharia law in the “no-go zones”. Journalists should test the accuracy of the information provided before publication, and should never plagiarize. On the contrary, Fox news adopted the phrase “no-go zone” from Western sources, and used it to compare its actual definition (areas with gang-related crimes) to the Muslims who are labeled as being behind the borders of the designated territories. Fox News was able to shape the public’s opinion, and convince many cultures of the cruelty of the Muslims based on false information, which was never double-checked for errors, so this again is considered as a violation of the Society of Professional Journalist’s Code of Ethics.
Another component is to avoid the enhancement of images, and their distortion to reach out to a specific targeted goal. This is exactly what it did, by adding a picture which is not related to the discussed topic, Fox News is most likely to have added a touch of darkness in color and an enhancement to the image’s features to make it stand out more and raise public sympathy for anti-Muslims and anger against Jihadists and Muslim terrorists. In addition, the code of ethics states that journalists should be fair, treat the subject of concern with respect, and be sensitive. In the article the used words such as “poor” and “alienated” to describe Muslims shows a biased side to the author, in addition to lowering the Muslim’s reputation and further proving to the public that Muslims should not be sympathized with. The article also uses words such as “urban guerrillas” to describe Muslims as they opposed the police with different kinds of weapons such as “shotguns and gasoline bombs”. This again highlights the one-sidedness of this article.
This article is biased, and this is not of surprise as the article itself suggests so and the author himself, Steve Emerson, is an Islamophobe. First of all, he organizes the Investigative Project on Terrorism that is responsible for showing the world the dangers associated with Islamic terrorist groups. He is also known for his adoption of false information about Muslims in his articles in addition to the fact that he is a self-described expert regarding these issues. This shows that the article is anti-Muslim and this is why the author of any article should be researched and understood well before coming to a judgment about an article. Even though many have suggested that the author is right, this myth might have been caused by these three causes. The first one is the development of Sharia courts in Europe. The second is the rise of Sharia groups like the ones in Europe specifically in East London, in which the groups avoid drinks in all kinds.
The third cause is the “no-go zones” in France, and they are areas that face economic and social crisis. Although the causes seem reasonable, but again they do not prove the author’s point and cannot be associated with such a case. This gives a clearer explanation of the issue, helps you understand how public opinions are formed, and how all the support for such a case came to be. One more item of the code is to be accountable for any mistakes made, so the community expects a quick apology and a justification for accusing the Muslims of possessing their own areas in France and some parts of Europe. If Steve Emerson does not account for his mistakes, then another item on this list will yet to be violated. You, people who are interested in Journalism and how it works, should be aware that the code of ethics should not be violated and this is for the safety of your reputation at least. The blind consumption of information is not fine, and various sides of the story should be read and understood carefully before coming out to a final conclusion.
