The four tenents of the Society of Professional Journalism's Code of Ethics are as follows: seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and finally, be accountable.
Unfortunately, in the Tuesday, February 18 issue of The DePauw we did not uphold the second of those tenants: to minimize harm. In response to this situation, we as an editorial board are ensuring that we uphold the final of these tenants, and hold ourselves accountable.
In our attempt to bring light to a prominent issue on campus, individuals have unintentionally been hurt. There was no malicious intent aimed toward the sources quoted. We feel that the issue of sexual assault was one that needed, and still needs, to be discussed. However, in our attempt to take on a difficult topic, we overstepped our responsibility to test boundaries and breached our ethical responsibilities.
As student journalists, we welcome new writers and open our doors to any student willing to learn how a newsroom operates. Through this process, we gain interested writers and train them with student editors.
However, this article came to us from a journalism class, which is a separate entity from The DePauw. This is not the usual procedure. In allowing the lines to blur between ourselves, an independently run news source, and the university, we opened ourselves up to writers not trained by The DePauw staff and to improperly vetted articles. Moving forward, this will not be allowed to happen as we redraw the line between material produced only for The DePauw and material produced for journalism classes.
We hold ourselves to the highest standards of professionalism, but as a student newspaper, we make mistakes. In our mission to move forward and learn from this experience, we are currently in collaboration with Code TEAL, Public Safety and DePauw's chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists to engage in a dialogue so that we may better understand how to approach such high impact topics.
As journalists, we are constantly being confronted with new issues and choices on how to report these issues. In the future, we intend to exercise even more care and caution in upholding the four tenants of professional journalism so that we can spark constructive conversations and bring the truth to light.