As a journalist and a person, I will always keep my values in the forefront of everything I do. An ethical journalist should have the same qualities as an ethical person: to be honest, reliable, hardworking, fair and accurate.

I will present the world’s and its people’s stories through an unbiased lens. I will respect all I encounter and hope to earn their respect through fair, complete and accurate reporting. I will seek out stories that haven’t been told and share them with the world.

Journalists should be fair in their storytelling and honest and courageous in their reporting. We, as community informers, must take responsibility for the accuracy of our work. We, as providers of a voice, must maintain a watchful eye on public affairs and government to ensure the public has all the information they need.

Honesty

Reporters have an obligation to perform their work with complete honesty and accuracy. I will perform every task set in front of me with complete honesty to build a trust with my sources and the readers. I will be faced with falsehood and temptation to take the easy way out, but I will strive to maintain an honest person at all times.

I will avoid conflicts of interests and not accept gifts that might skew my reporting. I will recognize my own biases to prevent them from obstructing my objective view on a story.

Journalists pride themselves on being truth-tellers, and I want to join the band of honest reporters and outperform those who take shortcuts.

Accountability

As a journalist and employee, I have a responsibility to be held accountable for the information I relay to the public and for how I handle myself in and out of the workplace. If I make a mistake, I will take responsibility, learn from it and move on. I will constantly work to earn back the trust of my readers and my coworkers.

I will be an employee who can be relied on for any task set in front of me. I want my coworkers to know I can be depended upon and will work my hardest to be a key member of any newsroom or environment I am in.

Persistence

Members of the media face rejection and run into obstacles. I, too, have faced rejection while working on a story or have been faced with a problem that needed to be solved quickly. I will not give up until the story is told and work my hardest to find out necessary information in a timely manner.

Wherever I am employed, I will make sure to maintain my personal values and ethics, but also make sure I am in compliance with the organization. If the organization asks me to perform a task against my ethics code, I will have a serious conversation with the necessary people.