Ethics and Media Culture: Practices and Representations

14 Consuming interests in a culture of secrecy

Miranda Basner

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

When journalists mount a ‘public interest’ defence for their conduct, they are essentially engaged in a conflict over secrecy. They are, in other words, staking a claim to the moral high ground for disclosing or investigating matters which others would prefer to keep concealed.

At present, I suggest, the British press frequently loses its moral compass because it is party to a code of practice which sidesteps secrecy as an ethical issue. Instead, journalists are obliged to defend their position on the basis of how ef fectively their activities ‘protect’ the public. What this emphasis tends to produce is considerable confusion about the particularistic meaning ...