Reporters should strive to make the news they publish or broadcast win the credibility and confidence of their readers and listeners by adhering firmly to the triple news virtues. These triple news virtues are
- Truth – All news stories must represent factual events and personalities. The reporter should also ensure that the facts of the News are truthful to the best of his/her knowledge before publishing or broadcasting such story.
- Objectivity – Objectivity presupposes that the reporter presents the reader with all sides of an issue, presents all the facts and allows the reader to decide what these facts mean. For a story to be objective, it must be devoid of a reporter’s biases and prejudice. It must not also be slanted or editorialised.
- Accuracy – This is the last news virtue. Accuracy is a pillar on which every story rests. A news story can be regarded as accurate if all names, ages, addresses and direct quotations in the story are accurate or correct. The only way to meet this requirement is for the reporter to check, double-check or even triple-check his facts before going to the press.
