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Ethics case study

Perverted Justice.com may be acclaimed based on their efforts to tackle one of the most prevalent problems in the society (MEDILL, 2009). Child sexual abuse is one of the major problems that the society is facing currently. Increased use of internet has especially given pedophile an avenue to predate on teenagers at the comfort of their homes.  However, the tactics that are being used by the website raises a number of ethical issues. It is important to understand the ethical issues arising from this case before tackling the challenges that a news director would face in choosing the website for source of materials.

The biggest ethical challenge that is evident in the method that is employed by the website in exposing pedophiles is that it may be ill-motivated to target innocent individuals. Individuals may flirt with children but with different intentions. Take an example of a counselor who wants to find target teenagers who get flirted and counsel them. He or she may end up becoming a victim of such a circumstance.  Second, this method is not reliable and has many loopholes that can be exploited to file legal proceedings.  This is because it may lack enough evidence and legal ground to carry out such investigations and expose individuals.

As a news director or station manager, there are various challenges that one is likely to face in deciding whether to use the services of the website.  It is important to understand one does not make the decision unilaterally since there are other major players like editors and company legal officers who would like to have clear legal authenticity of the source of information. This means that though as a news director one may be willing to get services from the website, its reputations, legality, and authenticity will be put to more scrutiny by other players in the news line (Smith, 2003). Although the audience will be very happy when pedophiles are exposed to the community since they will feel their children are safe, news editors and reporters who are likely to be sued by the purported pedophiles. It is therefore important to consider the three sides of the coin before deciding whether to choose the services of the company.

The most important ethical factor to consider is the effect that the news report will have on the purported pedophiles. It is evident that those whose pictures have been published in the website have suffered great deal of loss of jobs and respect in the society. So absurd is the fact that the website criminalizes individuals without giving them a chance to raise their defense (Ward, 2009). This is unethical and at some point it can destroy the name of the news company. After all, the website operates for business and it is a third party which as a clear agenda that may not rhyme with that the company.

Although as journalists we have responsibility of bringing out the truth, it is only the truth that one is sure of that should be brought to the public limelight (Cohen and Eliott, 1997).  There are other truths which are likely to do more harm to targeted individuals and the news reporters as well. For example in this case, reporting pedophiles without letting them go through criminal justice system can be considered as a corrupt truth. In other words, Pervertedp-Justice.com can be said to practice this corrupted truth because it is only after purported pedophiles are criminated by a court of law that they should be published in their website. Using the services of the company would therefore amount to damage of self-ethics and journalism ethics as well since only proved information should be reported (Stoerger, 2009).

Therefore, as a news director I would decline using the service of the website. This is because there are ethical and moral issues from the way the website expose purported pedophiles. Although news from the website would please many listeners and leaders, it may have more harm to purported pedophiles, who may be innocent, and to the company as well since it may suffer from law suits.

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