TEHRAN -- Deborah Nelson says that journalists must be ""beholden to no one and no thing"" other than the truth.

Maryland University visiting professor made the remarks in an e-mail interview with the Mehr News Agency conducted by Hossein Kaji and Javad Heiran-Nia.
Following is the text of the interview:
Q: Can we define some ethical codes for profession of journalism? What are they?
A: The news media, and the stories they produce should be independent, accurate, fair and impartial.
Journalists must be beholden to no one and no thing other than the truth. Journalists' reporting should not be influenced by government, business, religious or partisan pressure. Journalists should not accept money from people trying to influence a story, or pay sources to provide information. Journalists should not have personal or business relationships with the people or companies they are writing about. Conflicts of interest should be avoided. When that is not possible, conflicts of interest should be disclosed to the public. Journalists should set aside their own biases and make sure their reporting is balanced fairly and accurately.
The Society of Professional Journalists has a model code of ethics that is quite good and widely accepted in the U.S. news media. You will find the code at this link: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
Q: How can journalists protect their profession from political pressure?
A: That question is easier to answer in the U.S. than in many countries. Our constitution protects us from being arrested or censored by the government for what we write. So political influence or interference may be overcome by good and ethical reporting. I realize the situation is more complicated (and dangerous) in other places.
First, each journalist should the editor or official who is pressuring you, at least you will make them feel uncomfortable -- and perhaps they will be a little more reluctant to interfere the next time. Each journalist should commit to educating others -- reporters, editors, sources -- about ethical standards and why they are important to them and to society. Giving in to political influence is a breach in ethics that causes the public to lose confidence in both the news media and the government.
Second, news organizations should be encouraged to adopt codes of ethics that commit everyone -- reporters, editors, publishers, owners -- to resisting political interference and bias. The code of ethics should be shared with government officials and the public as a means of educating and gaining acceptance.
Here are examples: http://www.nytco.com/press/ethics.html
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id =91088
In the U.S., political influence is not exerted through force or censorship, but by manipulating the press. For example, government officials leak information to journalists for political or partisan purposes. A journalist's duty is to carry out independent reporting of leaked information to see if it presents an accurate, complete and fair picture. (We have a saying: ""If your mother says she loves you, check it out."") However, not all journalists take the time to do independent reporting, due to laziness, inexperience or fear of getting beat by the competition. There are increasing economic and technological pressures to compromise standards. Newsrooms have fewer reporters. They are under pressure to post stories on the internet quickly, before the competition, and sometimes before the reporting is completed.
Deborah Nelson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist. She is author of a new book, The War Behind Me: Vietnam Veterans Confront s and Pentagon officials