The Conversation

Coronavirus is a huge story, so journalists must apply the highest ethical standards in how they tell it

Author: Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne

Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND

From an ethical perspective, covering the coronavirus story is really hard to do well.

The reason for this lies in an inherent conflict between two ethical obligations: the obligation to truth-telling and the obligation not to add unjustifiably to public anxiety.

From the earliest days, when the virus spread...

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