ABSTRACT
This chapter considers what an ethical journalism might look like and then it considers why it is that debates on ethics have not been central to the field of journalism studies. Journalists take upon themselves the role of moral arbiter every time they decide whether to reveal the sins of others and hold them up to public scrutiny. Studies of media structures and ownership suggest that most journalists are not free actors. Cultural studies approaches also largely ignore ethical dilemmas as they are experienced by journalists, but in this case because their focus has been rather more on the agency of audiences than on journalists. Peter Preston, former editor of the Guardian recognises that journalists need to operate in a grey area that may on occasion step outside the law but he cannot see that ethical judgement comes to the rescue of journalism, it doesn't inhibit it.
