... Must They Remain Neutral in Conflict?

• Author: Cutter, Ann Grier

The Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, the New York University and Columbia University co-sponsored a symposium in April 1999 entitled "Journalists Covering Conflict: Norms of Conduct". It provided an opportunity for professionals from the international news media and academia to discuss how norms and training can contribute to more effective news coverage of conflict situations. This article addresses one of the major issues that arose during the symposium: the tension between the news media's pursuit of objectivity and the ethical challenges of covering conflict.

The rise of objectivity as a journalistic ethic occurred in the last 60 years. Journalists, seeking to improve their status as purveyors of information, found that their credibility increased with non-partisan reporting. Objectivity and related norms of neutrality and fairness are now considered inviolable by journalists as part of their profession's commitment to discovering and reporting the truth. But they are also impossible ideals. Reporting is constantly influenced by the ongoing subjective decisions a reporter must make, such as whom to interview, which quotes to include, and what pictures to discard.

Objectivity is an interesting choice as a value for a profession that has no other established standards of credentials or training. In their observance of objectivity, journalists can be grouped into three camps. The first assigns a strictly passive, neutral role for journalists; the second believes that reporting can be objective and create an incentive to take action; and the third abandons objectivity as the core value in war reporting.

The first camp defines objectivity in journalism as a form of neutrality, a "fly on the wall". According to Leslie Gelb, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, "journalists are in the business of news, not truth. When journalists forget that, they do very misleading and destructive things. News is what you can honestly find out that day. This is a constant process that bows to reality and doesn't impose any view on that reality."

The view of the journalist as a passive observer has been challenged on many grounds. Scientists question the ability of any human to be objective, and others question the moral dimensions of passivity. Robert Manoff, Director of the Center for War, Peace, and the News Media at New York University, develops an argument on the criminality of the passive role of journalists in violent...