Profession vs Ethics – UPSC Ethics

A photojournalist who happens to visit a site where communal forces are indiscriminately killing innocent women and children gets an opportunity to take pictures of the horrifying scenes. He keeps taking picture even after the mob leaves. He had an opportunity to help the victims, but his professional interests motivated him to take as many pictures as possible to tell the tragic story through photos to the world.

    1. In your opinion, should such professionals be involved in providing immediate relief to victims or in taking photographs and reveal the story to the world? What would you do if you were the photojournalist in the above case? Justify.
    2. Is it ethical to publish graphic pictures of victims in newspapers? Justify. (250 W0rds)
Every Person should give priority to the work that he/she is expected to do.
In this case your Duty is to do Journalism and report true facts about the incident to the Agency that have assigned the task to you.
First, a person should his/her duty honestly, and only then he/she should give priority to Human Sufferings .
If the person is really interested in providing some relief to the human sufferings , then he/she can do that without affecting the duty assigned to him/her .
    1. A Journalist have limitations in providing relief to any suffering because he/she does not have the money and material to give instant relief . The only thing he/she want to do some relief is calling an ambulance or any medical team without affecting or putting himself/herself at risk .
    2. We have to publish Horrifying images of the incident because we are expected to report the truth but we should also take care that the pictures will not have any future negative consequences on the persons who were victims of the incident .
A person who doesn’t know swimming should NOT jump into the water if a person is drowning because he is putting his life in danger. Thus in my view, journalist should be doing what he is supposed to do i.e. take photos and if he can  help victims without hampering his work, then only he should do that.

 

 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top