Columbia University School of Journalism

You're working in another country as a foreign correspondent for a news organization with a traditional, "objective" view of news reporting. How should you handle each of these situations?

   1. You receive a phone call from a reliable contact in a revolutionary group in an oppressive country saying the group is going to attack a marketplace tomorrow. Substantial civilian casualties are likely. Should you tip off the authorities -- even if this is likely to lead to the capture and torture of those planning the attack? 

   2. In another country, you are accompanying guerrillas from an oppressed ethnic group. They plan to launch a surprise attack tomorrow on a government military unit as it rotates out on leave. The government soldiers will be unarmed at the time, and are all likely to be slaughtered. Should you tip off the army if you can safely do so, or do you stay quiet and observe the massacre?

   3. You receive a phone call saying members of a dissident group are going to immolate themselves in a public square tomorrow to protest government policy. No one else is likely to be hurt by the action. Should you tip off the authorities so their deaths can be prevented? If not, is it OK to go there, stand around inconspicuously and then photograph the immolations when they happen? 

   4. You are a reporter in Afghanistan and purchase a used computer that turns out to contain a hard drive with al-Qaida documents on it. You speak Arabic and, as far as you can determine, there is nothing about any imminent attack. But it has valuable information about group members and hideouts. Should you turn it over to your country's authorities?

   5. You receive a phone call from a group that claims it speaks for al-Qaida, calling for the overthrow of Pakistani president Musharraf. Your caller ID unit traps the phone number of the anonymous caller. Should you give it to the authorities?

   6. A U.S. diplomat who is often helpful to you asks for your help. A U.S. congressional delegation is about to visit and would like to meet with certain anti-government dissidents in a sign of support. But the embassy doesn't have a way to contact them. You do. Should you tell the embassy how to contact them? Tell the dissidents about the visit and let them contact the embassy? Or do nothing? (You know the dissidents will be only too pleased to meet the delegation.)

   7. You have covered a bloody series of ethnic cleansings in several countries and have learned a good deal about how they happen. The International Committee of the Red Cross wants you to participate in a closed, round-table session in which journalists, diplomats and academics will confidentially advise the ICRC on how such disasters might be prevented in the future. The ICRC will pay your travel and hotel expenses. Should you participate? If so, should you accept the expense money? Also: should you testify at a war crimes trial in The Hague to specific acts of brutality that you witnessed?

   8. You are covering a conference to promote industrial development in Country X. While you are there, you discover in your hotel room a gift that's been left for all the reporters covering the conference: an attractive souvenir collection of coins from that nation, with a card saying it comes to you with the compliments of the Ministry of Tourism. You see similar collections on sale in the hotel gift shops for about $75. (The Ministry of Tourism has no direct connection with the conference, but knows you're a journalist covering it. You intend to write no stories on tourism, and haven't told anyone you do.) Can you keep the coins?

   9. The chief of public relations of a company gives you a lift in a cab to a presentation on the company's new strategy. Do you let your host pay?

   10. NATO invites a group of correspondents to observe maneuvers in Europe. They fly you in a 737 jetliner from your base in Brussels to the headquarters for the maneuvers in Frankfurt, then fly you around the mock battlefield in a helicopter. They make no request for reimbursement. Should you pay?

   11. A Russian politician is in the center of international media attention. In every interview, he makes news by elaborating extreme racial and nationalistic theories. You ask for an interview and are told it will cost $500. You know your news organization can well afford this, and that your competitors are paying similar sums. Do you pay for the interview?

   12. You are offered an opportunity to purchase tapes of hostages being held by a guerrilla group. Should you purchase and broadcast the material? Suppose it's offered for free?

   13. A member of a dissident religious group agrees to give you an interview, but asks for a small gift -- a few paperback novels to help her learn English. Such things are hard to get in her repressive country. Is it ethical to give a gift like this? Suppose the dissident asks for medicine instead of books?

   14. The president of the country you're reporting on offers you an interview. His press office proposes this deal: questions must be submitted in advance, and your paper has to agree to publish on the Web, in addition to your story, the full text of the interview.  Do you accept the conditions?

   15. The foreign minister of the country where you’re based invites you for an interview on the eve of his departure for New York to address the U.N. General Assembly. You have agreed in advance that the interview will be “embargoed” for use only after his speech. In the interview, he tells you that in his speech, he is going to issue an ultimatum to a neighboring country, demanding that it make territorial concessions within 24 hours or face "immediate consequences." This news is very significant; does it override your agreement to the embargo?

  16. You are interviewing a foreign official, in English. He says, “We try to be friends with the America. Sometimes not easy but we try.” Is it OK to clean up the grammar in the quote?

   17. A guerrilla group invites you to interview its leader, who is constantly on the run from the authorities. You must agree to be taken blindfolded to his hideout, and not to reveal his location -- even if you figure out, once you get there, where the location is. Should you agree to the conditions?

   18. A plane has crashed, killing all aboard. Airline officials gather the distraught relatives of the passengers, who had been waiting for the flight to arrive, for an initial briefing on how the crash occurred and what compensation it plans to offer. You aren't related to anyone on the plane but have a chance to slip into the briefing and get material for your story. Should you?

   19. A low-ranking U.N. aid worker has been kidnapped in a turbulent country. You learn of it almost immediately, from a friend of the worker, but the local U.N. director begs you not to report it: The director says publicity will only make him appear more valuable to the kidnappers and they’ll be less likely to free him. Do you agree to keep silent? Suppose the kidnapped person is a fellow journalist?