No Freedom of Speech for AP Journalists

Posted on Jul 9, 2011

Flickr / ztil301

A deputy managing editor at The Associated Press has issued a formal warning to the company’s employees after two journalists voiced their opinions on New York’s approval of gay marriage and the Casey Anthony murder trial on social media sites.

“These posts undermine the credibility of our colleagues who have been working so hard to assure balanced and unbiased coverage of these issues,” wrote Deputy Managing Editor Tom Kent in an email. For its “bad faith” insistence that reporters should publicly divorce themselves from any and all thoughts and emotions that arise out of their work and behave strictly as instruments of the press—a common view among members of the mainstream media—the remark should have Sartre spinning in his grave. —ARK

Poynter:

From: Kent, Tom?
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 2:57 PM?
To: ?
Subject: Expressing personal opinions on social networks

Colleagues,

In at least two recent cases, we have seen a few postings on social networks by AP staffers expressing personal opinions on issues in the news.

This has happened on the New York Senate vote on gay marriage and on the Casey Anthony trial. These posts undermine the credibility of our colleagues who have been working so hard to assure balanced and unbiased coverage of these issues.

AP’s News Values and Principles state that anyone who works for AP must be mindful that opinions they express may damage the AP’s reputation as an unbiased source of news. This point is contained in our social network guidelines as well.

Failure to abide by these rules can lead to disciplinary action.
The vast majority of our tweets on these stories — and on other issues in the news — have been completely in line with our guidelines. They pose no problem at all, and are consistent with the importance of AP staffers being active on social networks.

But social networks, however we may configure our accounts or select our friends, should be considered a public forum. AP staffers should not make postings there that amount to personal opinions on contentious public issues.

Please let your supervisor or me know if you have any questions on this. And thanks.

Tom

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