This article emphasizes the crucial role of ethical and professional journalism in contrast to the often unregulated and unreliable nature of social media. It highlights the Irish Times' commitment to journalistic standards, including fact-checking, fairness, balance, and accountability.
As we are owned by a Trust, we have no billionaire proprietor interfering in editorial decisions and we are free to pursue the stories that matter even when - especially when - the most powerful people in society seek to stand in our way. Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged false and abusive content will increase following Meta's decision to no longer pay teams of fact-checkers.
Photograph: Yui Mok/PA WireA bespoke collection of Irish Times journalism exclusively for subscribers featuring previews and the best of the week that was to the rules governing what can or cannot be posted on the company’s platforms – Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Meta, he announced, will no longer pay teams of fact-checkers to identify misleading information. It will also relax its regulations on the levels of abuse – personal or political – that are permitted. Anyone who uses social media will be aware that whatever fact-checking or content moderation rules were in place up to this week did not prevent false or misleading material or toxic abuse appearing regularly on these sites. And Zuckerberg has acknowledged that this sort of content will increase. We are now almost two decades into the social media age. It has given many people great pleasure, allowing them to maintain connections with friends and loved ones. Many more have found it a valuable information resource. However, it has also become an unprecedented and powerful amplifier of lies, false conspiracy theories, propaganda and accidental or deliberate misinformation. For those of us working in professional journalism, the rise of social media has served to highlight the importance of the ethical and editorial standards we are required to uphold every day. These include not publishing any assertion of fact unless it has been verified by a reliable source. If we do inadvertently publish inaccurate information, we undertake to correct it as promptly as possible. We are committed to upholding standards of fairness and balance by offering anyone who is the subject of our journalism the opportunity to respond. In our publishing processes, we endeavour to distinguish clearly between factual reporting and opinion pieces. And we promise that we are not beholden to any sectoral or commercial interest. As we are owned by a Trust, we have no billionaire proprietor interfering in editorial decisions and we are free to pursue the stories that matter even when – especially when – the most powerful people in society seek to stand in our way. In The Irish Times, we are also committed to respecting the individual rights and dignity of everyone we cover and to be particularly attentive to the rights of minorities. I can personally assure you that I see these principles being put into practice every day by Irish Times journalists as they go about their work of planning, commissioning, writing and editing articles, producing videos, photographs and podcasts and designing pages. We see ourselves as accountable in the first instance to our readers and subscribers, but we also account for our work within a broader professional and regulatory structure that upholds the rights of readers and the broader public via the Press Council and Press Ombudsman. Like any publisher, we sometimes get it wrong. We’re far from perfect. But the contrast with the unaccountable, unregulated and often anonymous social media content with which we are all familiar is obvious. To say this is not to be critical of any particular individual who posts or consumes that content. It’s simply to draw your attention to the importance of professional and ethical journalism at the end of a week when overall standards of public discourse have taken another grievous blow. And to thank you as a subscriber for helping to make it possible for us to produce our award-winning journalism
ETHICAL JOURNALISM SOCIAL MEDIA TRUTH ACCOUNTABILITY STANDARDS
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