Mind you, when I reflect on the Christian folk who pose this question to me, the vast majority of them are militant fundamentalists who seem to have the perception that working in the media is “off the devil”.
Such militant fundamentalists, whilst entitled to their warped opinions as part of freedom of expression, are a mirror image of the ethos of McCarthyism which swept America during the Fifties and Sixties.
Then the big scare was from communism under the guise of ‘Reds under the bed’; now with the militant fundamentalists of the 2020s it is ‘Satan under the sofa’!
During my time in the tabloid press, I remember a fundamentalist elder challenging me as to how I could call myself a born again Christian, yet write a national newspaper column which was bedecked with scantily clad women. I simply asked this elder - how do you know there are scantily clad women on my column? The conversation ended rapidly with the elder walking away red-faced!
My answer to the militant fundamentalists is that I can show my Christian faith in journalism through a strict adherence to the Biblical ninth commandment - thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
I interpret this practically as ensuring that every article I publish or broadcast adheres 100 per cent to the codes and conventions relating to media law and journalism ethics. Whilst I have covered many controversial stories and written or broadcast in a contentious manner at times, I have - thus far - never received a solicitor’s letter for my work.
There is also the concept of trust. Rule 14 of the Editors’ Code of Practice relates to source protection. It states: “Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information.” If I was to breach this code, either verbally or in writing, who would ever trust me again?
Moreover, given my strong church background, I have no doubt that if I ever fell into the pitfall of breaching Rule 14, people would say - you just can’t trust that Christian Coulter! Any breach will reflect not just on me personally, but on my Christian faith.
This, of course, had led to challenges to me of ‘what if-ery’ What if you found out your source was about to commit a crime; what if your source is involved in paramilitary or terrorist activity. Or, the most challenging ‘what if’ - what if your source was involved in child abuse?
In this respect I am a militant. Once I give my word on anonymity to a confidential source, I will not break that pledge - and I am prepared to suffer the consequences.
This was especially the case when working for a documentary in 1991 for the Channel Four series, Dispatches, investigating allegations of collusion, I was interviewed by police officers about the identity of my police source.
This Rule 14 has not only thrown up challenges in relation to covering the Irish conflict, but also in church life whereby fellow Christians over the years have tipped me off about alleged scandals in churches. Indeed, some of these confidential sources have been clerics themselves.
I often draw the analogy - you see your fellow Christian in church on Sunday mornings when it’s all ‘praise Jesus, hallelujah, God bless you brother and sister!’ But I again see these same people on Monday morning when they are in my office dishing the dirt on their fellow believers!
There has been one place of worship where I investigated allegations of promiscuous sexual activity among Christians. Ethically, I was unable to publish the story - not for legal reasons - but because I could not guarantee the anonymity of my source inside that specific place of worship.
In this example, it was a case of ‘too much information’. I showed my source three drafts of the story I wanted to publish and on each occasion, my source told me if I published it in that grammatical manner, folk in the place of worship would most likely be able to work out who had provided me with the information. I was not prepared to sacrifice the source simply to get the story published.
Fellow Christians can, at times, be very quick to judge me about the coverage of scandals in places of worship. Their preferred line of criticism is from the New Testament, St Matthew’s Gospel Chapter 18 when Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother. Should it be seven times?
Jesus’ reply in verse 22 is very poignant: “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven.”
And here’s the ultimate dilemma for the Christian working in the media. Applying these words of Jesus to my role as a journalist, I should constantly forgive the Christian who can’t make up their mind whose bed they should be in! In this case, I’d never get any story published!
When I operate as a journalist, I leave my Bible outside the newsroom door. I focus purely on observing the ninth commandment. And yes, when I stand before the Lord on judgement day, I will have to answer for that decision to leave my Bible outside the newsroom.
Mind you, as a member of the pressure group Christians In Media, I get alarmed when militant fundamentalist try to brand all of the media with the same satanic brush.
For example, in my honest opinion, the Pentecostalist magazine Elim Life is one of the most professionally produced magazines in Ireland - and I’m not just saying that because I’ve had a few articles published in it!
When militant fundamentalists brand the media as being part of some satanic deception, are they seriously including the staunchly evangelical Elim Life in their criticism?
In terms of Christian ethics versus journalism ethics, I would summarise my own personal situation with the observation that when I die, two coffins will be cremated - one for my earthly remains and the other for the secrets of my sources that I take with me into eternity.
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. |
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