Useful articles
30-11-2009
NUJ Ethix Council Guidelines on reporting terrorism
The NUJ’s Ethics Council has produced a set of guidelines to help journalists grappling with the problems of reporting police raids on ‘terrorist suspects’.
Reporters have to try to make fair and balanced stories while the information given by police is often scant and unverifiable.
Only one in five of those held on terror raids are ever charged and only one in 20 convicted, yet the innocent must live with the consequences for life.
The guidelines were launched with a fringe meeting at the NUJ’s 2009 Annual Delegate Meeting in Southport, Merseyside. The event was addressed by former detainees who, though wholly innocent, had been stigmatised by the coverage of the raids in which they were held and the unfair accusations levelled at them.