ABSTRACT
Truth is both journalism’s most important and its most controversial moral principle. Since discussing truth always involves taking a position with regard to metaphysically, ontologically, and epistemologically complicated questions, and any theoretical standpoint is quickly met with criticism. The respect for human dignity is the third fundamental journalism moral principle and, according to D. Cornu, an attention to human dignity “sets limits to the public’s right to know”. The National Press Photographers Association’s code of ethics describes the mission of “visual journalism” largely in line with the majority of journalism codes of ethics mapped by Cornu. The multiple versions of truth which are in use in journalism ethics, ranging from “real truth,” “religious truth,” to “scientific truth,” “objective truth,” “journalistic truth,” and so on, are symptomatic of a pluralistic understanding of truth. Regarding minorities, codes of ethics prohibit all sorts of discrimination based on sex, race, nationality, language, religion, ideology, culture, class, sexual orientation, and disability.
