Mageswari MUSALAYAH
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication
43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Department of Communication,
Tel No: +603-89468797 Fax No: +603-89485950 E-mail: mwmages@gmail.com
Siti Zobidah OMAR
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Department of Communication
43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel No: +603-8946 8797 Fax No: +603-89485950 E-mail: zobidah@fbmk.upm.edu.my
Amini Amir ABDULLAH
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Faculty of Human Ecology,Department of Government and Civilization Studies
, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel No: +603-89467314 Fax No: +603-89485950 E-mail: amini@putra.upm.edu.my
Ezhar TAMAM
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Department of Communication
43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel No: +603-89468663 Fax No: +603-89485950 E-mail: ezhar@fbmk.upm.edu.my
ABSTRACT
Journalism, as any professional field, is trusted to be guided by code of ethics (COE). In Malaysia, journalists have their own Canons of Journalism. The aim of this study is to determine the reporters’ understanding on the practice of code of ethics in reporting news. Using a case study approach, the research was conducted at the Kuala Lumpur court complex. Qualitative method was employed to obtain the data. Fifteen court reporters from the English and Malay newspaper’s media organizations were interviewed in-depth to gather data for this study. Finding shows that most of the informants have various understanding over COE in carrying out their reporting work every day. To them, ethics is more to do with principles or guidelines concerning the rights and wrongs of human conduct, and thus, failure to follow the practice of COE in reporting news may have an impact on the reputation of the reporters, media organization and credibility.
Keywords: code of ethics, journalism, print media, court reporters, media organization