Photojournalists professional code of conduct

 Note: Dr. Lo spent 4 hours writing this up. Of course, it is important and it will be in the examination.

Journalism should be:
Credible, objective, unbiased, complete, accurate, and socially responsible.

The following professional code of conduct is derived from the above value. Instead of preaching you what we should do, I am suggesting what we should not do.

Things photojournalists don’t do:

Do not knowingly jeopardize people’s life or safety for getting photos because being a responsible human being comes before being a responsible photojournalist (however, taking photos of a traffic accident victim at a distance is not jeopardize his/her life).

Do not give up the opportunity of saving a life in exchange of a photo (unless someone else is already doing the life saving job or that we are sure that our help is not going to save that life).

Do not set up or stage photos to look like documentary. We do not create, we discover. One exception is when we are shooting posed portrait (environmental portrait). In that case, we create the moment but make sure the subject is posing (look directly at the camera) in front of the camera. Remember, no amount of captioning can justify a visual lie. When the photo looks real, it’d better be real.

Do not add, move, or remove objects during a documentary-shooting situation. Move ourselves, not the subjects or objects.

Do not digitally manipulating documentary photos more than they need for proper reproduction for publishing. Do not change the content of a photo in photo enhancement.

Do not obstruct the natural happening of an event. Try to cut the interference to the minimum. (e.g. Not to use flash when people are watching slideshow or performing on stage).

Do not change the course of the natural happening of an ongoing event. (e.g. Don’t ask people to stop when they should be walking. Don’t ask or suggest people to cry when they are not crying)

Do not break laws to get photo because acting within the boundary of law shows that we are honest and reliable, and that is one reason why public trust us (unless there is an overriding reason such as revealing governmental repression and brutality on countries with no press freedom).

Do not give in to threats or harassment easily unless personal safety is in immediate danger. We should extend our legal right to the most possible limit. We are not photographing for ourselves, we are doing it for the public. They put their hopes on us.

Do not let emotion get over our head. Do not let sadness, joy, horror, excitement, anger or threat carry us away. To be able to do our job effectively and efficiently, we need to try everything we can to be cool, be calm, be rational, be objective, be accurate, be polite and be respectful.

Do not bring a friend or kids to cover an assignment because having two identities in us at the same time might compromise our full ability and attention to achieve our complete and accurate reporting.   

Do not receive payment, reward, or freebie when shooting assignments because we might knowingly or unknowingly compromise our objectivity. Readers will lose trust in us if they know we did that.

Do not lure people into letting us shoot photos of them by offering money, goodies, and reward of any kind because subject might do unreal things for us just because of the reward.

Do not lie to people to get photo opportunities. Lying photographers can’t ask people to trust their photos are true.

Do not dress red to a funeral or dress shorts and sandals to an executive board meeting. If we don’t show respect and prepared for our assignment, how are we going to show respect to our photographs, and also the people and events that we are reporting?

Do not promise our subjects publishing the photos because in journalism business, publishing news is a serious collective decision, every report has to go through a collective editing and gatekeeping process. We don’t want to make any promise we can’t keep.

Do not let any personal prejudice get into photographs we take. We don’t purposely make people look appealing; we don’t purposely make people look ugly either.

Do not compromise accuracy by getting second- or third-hand information. Whenever possible, request and confirm information from the subject directly.

Do not put on anything such as buttons, caps, and stickers given by event organizer when shooting an assignment. Do not dress clothes with signs and words that label us to a political or social party.

Do not express personal political or social preference when covering assignment. We can show understanding and ask questions, but we don’t take sides when reporting.

Do not just shoot the way people organize the event want us to shoot but rather shoot everything that represent and document the event because we are not working for event organizers. We work for an independent news organization, and eventually, we serve the public’s right to know.

Do not give or promise giving any photo or shoot any specify photos for the event organizer. We cover the news for the public, not the organizer. Removing ourselves by shooting photos other than what the news required could result in a compromise of the coverage of the news.

Do not let the subjects of the photo, the general public, or government officials (such as police) to view our unpublished photos because if we do, our independence in deciding what to publish might be affected, or causing a change of the natural happenings of the event, or becoming an extension of a branch of the government. (The court might summon unpublished news photos only if it has good reason to believe that a criminal act is recorded in the photo).

Do not resell or publish photos we took for the news organization without prior approval. “Work-for-hire” law states that once we are hired as an employee of a news organization, the copyright of the photos go to the company unless we are a freelancer and under a different contract. 

Do not delete any photos we took for an assignment because we don’t know how things would develop. Some of our less than important and technically unsound photos might become a decisive photo in the course of news and history in the future. Keep every photo archived, good or bad.