Mass Communication Law and Ethics

MCM610
MCM610
Semester – Fall 2020
Assignment No. 1
REZISH ERAJ
(MC200203390)
Ethics:
Ethics is the branch of philosophy. According to N.M.Adhikary, ethics is ‘ Motivation is
based on ideas of right and wrong’ and ‘ The philosophical study of moral values and rules.’

There are 3 different scopes of ethics. They are:

Meta-Ethics
Normative Ethics
Applied Ethics
Meta-ethics:
Meta-ethics comprises the area of situational ethics and deals with logical
questions like ‘What do we mean by ‘freedom’ and ‘determinism’ etc. It
delves into the nature of ethical properties, attitudes, and judgments. For
example, a media critic’s description of a TV series as ‘good drama’ does not
necessarily denote that the program is morally sound. It is the function of
metaethics to define such vague concepts in ethical terms. Some of the
theories of Meta-Ethics are Naturalism, Non-Naturalism, Emotivism and
Prescriptivism.

Normative Ethics:
Normative ethics deals with standards or norms by which we can
judge human actions to be right or wrong. It deals with the criteria of
what is morally right or wrong. For example, if someone murders a
 person, everyone will agree that it is wrong. The question is: Why is it
wrong to murder someone? There are a lot of different answers we
could give, but if we want to specify a principle that stated why its
wrong, the answer might be: Murder is wrong because when we kill
someone, we violate their right to live. Another perspective might be –
To inflict unnecessary suffering on the person being murdered or their
family is wrong, that’s why to kill a person is wrong. There are three
elements emphasized by normative ethics:
The person who performs the act (the agent)
The act
The consequences of the act
Applied Ethics:
Applied ethics is the problem-solving branch of moral philosophy. It
uses the insights derived from metaethics and the general principles
and rules of normative ethics in addressing specific ethical issues and
cases in a professional, disciplinary or practical field. Applied ethics is
the vital link between theory and practice, the real test of ethical
decision-making. Applied ethics often requires not only theoretical
analysis but also practical and feasible solutions.

Some of the key areas of applied ethics are:

Decision Ethics
Professional Ethics
Clinical Ethics
Business Ethics
Organizational Ethics
Social Ethics
Nature of ethics

Ethics is analytical: Every human behavior has some philosophical or moral or principle

Sometimes ethics is abstract in nature. It is not like the manual system. It is not necessary
that it has been expressed in general rules or statements.

Ethics is a normative science. It is concerned with what ought to be done rather than what is
the case. Normative ethics deals with standards or norms by which we can judge human
actions to be right or wrong.

Ethics is not a practical science. Practical science deals with means for the realization of an
end or ideal. It teaches us to know how to do. Like medical science is a practical science. But
ethics is not concerned with the means in order to achieve moral ideal that is rightness or
goodness. It does not teach us how to live a moral life. So ethics cannot be regarded as a
practical science.

Ethics is not an art. Ethics does not teach us an art as to how to lead a moral life. Rather it
helps to justify rightness or goodness. Morality consists of been which is really an intrinsic
end.

Ethics is subjective. There’s just no right answer. It may depend on the individual religion or
culture or reasonings, for instance, is it wrong if the person steals to feed their family? Moral
judgments are expressions of preference or personal opinion and therefore there is no rational
way for deciding between these two conflicting judgments.

Ethics is applied to human beings only as they have freedom of choice and means of the free
will.

Ethical norms are ever changing because it is contextual and affected by culture, technology,
religion, and politics.

Objectives of Ethics

Ethical objectives are as follows:

Objectivity

Impartiality

Accuracy
Public Accountability

Fairness

Truthfulness

Sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and
worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news report
encourages biased impressions of events rather than neutrality, and may cause a manipulation
to the truth of a story.Sensationalism may rely on reports about generally insignificant
matters and portray them as a major influence on society, or biased presentations of
newsworthy topics, in a trivial, or tabloid manner, contrary to general assumptions of
professional journalistic standards.
Most controversial issue in modern societies is media biasness, especially considering
political issues, cultural and other issues. Sensationalism is also a common complaint with
minor factual errors is also a common trend.
The Cybercrime Bill empowers the PTA to block or remove access to any controversial or
criminalized content or website.
Nighat Dad, a non-governmental organization working for cyber rights, says the bill does not
explain the reasons for any of the content being criminalized and it is not clear who the
people are. Who will determine if any content or website falls into this category. That is why
it is not appropriate to give such a complete authority to a single institution.
Nighat Daad says that people have created funny accounts on the internet but now if
someone posts a cartoon of a person, it is also a crime. Nighat Daad says, They are enough to
scare us. YouTube has been shut down for three years and a sudden order has been issued
stating that millions of websites have been shut down because they were obscene. Such
decisions have eroded people's confidence in the institution.
Nighat Dad fears that if the internet companies, Facebook, Twitter and Google do not listen
to him, they can shut him down in Pakistan under this option like YouTube in the past.
Lawyer Yasir Latif Hamdani says that PT It is not right to give A a discretion. He says that
the personal views and religious tendencies of the people sitting in the institutions can affect
it. Due to the lack of clear definition of many words, the website of any liberal person can be
blocked and PTA The steps it was taking before have now just been given a legal status.
It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
Saving user data
The Cybercrime Bill directs Internet providers to keep users' data safe for at least a year so
that authorities can obtain it for any type of investigation. Is against the fundamental rights of
It is not clear whether the data will belong to certain individuals or suspected extremists and
terrorists or whether the information of every ordinary citizen will be protected and what
legal action can be taken against any person accessing their information as a Pakistani
citizen. Is also not explained.
Cyber stock, counterfeiting, spamming
Under the Cyber Crimes Bill, there are also severe penalties for sending unsolicited and
inappropriate content to someone. Yasir Latif Hamdani says: I do not respond to the other
party and he can use it against me. With regard to cyber stalking, there is a fear that due to
the lack of explanation, anyone can accuse someone that They are keeping an eye on him and
his sentence is one year.
According to a clause in the cyber bill, you can't post someone's picture on the internet
without permission.
Nighat Dad says it does not describe images of private or public places. If a person takes a
picture of a meeting, rally, protest, or event in a public place and a few more people appear in
it, they should file a complaint against the person who took the picture and posted it on social
media. can.
Journalism in Pakistan was more about sensationalism than reporting facts. I partly agree.
But this should lead to the question as to why journalism in Pakistan is sensationalist. I
believe that’s because people are more receptive to sensational news than facts-based
reporting. Just go to the website of this newspaper and look closely at the sidebar that shows
the most viewed, most commented and most emailed news stories. These days, such stories
will most likely be about Memogate, Imran Khan, Zardari, judiciary, ISI and Veena
Malik. Ever wondered why business stories are conspicuously missing from the three most
popular lists? That’s because it takes extra effort on the readers’ part to understand hardcore
business, economic and financial journalism. Op-ed pieces on the politics of Imran Khan –
awash with meaningless words like ‘undercurrent’ and ‘middle-class narrative’ – are a dime
a dozen in our newspapers. That’s because one, the writer doesn’t have to research the topic;
and two, readers love to consume frivolous commentary on politics. So why blame
journalism when a report on this newspaper’s website about the new gas load management
plan goes completely uncommented while the story about Imran Khan defending his politics
receives over 60 comments? While most ‘news junkies’ – a fashionable way of describing
oneself in Twitter bios – know the flip-flops of Mansoor Ijaz, I wonder how many of them
have read about the government’s plan to import 1.2 million tons of urea. The news that the
state was going to import 1.2 million tons of urea because it couldn’t supply the promised
amount of gas to Engro’s newly built plant would’ve caused public outrage in any other
country. Not so in our case. Take another example. It’s widely believed that Pakistan has the
second largest coal reserves in the world. If that’s true, then what about the five million tons
of coal that Pakistan imports every year mainly for cement manufacturing? And although the
installed capacity of cement manufacturing is far higher than our domestic consumption, why
haven’t we built so far a dedicated dirty cargo terminal at any port of the country to facilitate
its bulk export? These things are reported in newspapers every day. But perhaps we’re too
busy consuming inconsequential and sensational news. Maybe, journalists are doing their
jobs just fine, but readers are simply not interested in real news. News consumers, not
journalists, are to be blamed for sensationalism that’s creeping into journalism.
The single issue that seems most to concern those who are worried about the press is bias in
political reporting. At the present time, American conservatives are especially concerned
about bias and have formed several “watchdog” groups (for example, Accuracy in Media) to
identify and focus attention on what they perceive to be biased reporting. But a concern with
bias on the part of the American press has existed on the Left as well. Recall complaints in
the 1960s about the “establishment” press by critics of Vietnam war policy.