Revising the Ethics Code

The Society of Professional Journalists is taking a red pencil to its ethics guidelines—the first update since 2014.

the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), a more than century-old industry organization with nearly five thousand members across two hundred and fifty chapters in the United States, might be best known for its code of ethics, a set of bullet-pointed precepts that can fit on a poster designed to hang in journalism classrooms and newsrooms: “Seek Truth and Report It”; “Minimize Harm”; “Act Independently”; “Be Accountable and Transparent.” Each is described in succinct sentences. Now, with AI, creator journalists, and other industry changes in mind, SPJ is revising that code for the first time in more than a decade.