Concerning the “paid news stories” that abound nowadays, should laws be enacted to ban reporters from receiving benefits?
It is not necessary. No matter how well-intended the laws may be to ban reporters from receiving benefits from the subjects of interviews, the goals are hard to realize. On the contrary, it may have all sorts of bad consequences. Q6. Why is that? A: I study media laws. I have never seen any country criminalizing the act of reporters receiving benefits. I have never seen any country’s prosecutors charging reporters with taking bribes. Q7. If reporters can take bribes to produce “paid reporting” or “paid non-reporting,” aren’t the bad reporters being given a free hand? A: This can be dealt with by industry self-discipline. We should trust this piece of commonsense: A reporter with lousy professional ethics will not be accepted by the industry. Most reporters will stick to good professional ethics and not fool around with their professional careers. Q8. Why is there chaos now which no longer exist in western journalism anymore? A: This is a symptom of the state of ill health within our jo
