While pursuing their functions, it is obligatory for the journalists to respect the duties set by article 14 of the Journalist Statute.
Fundamental duties:
• Inform readers with rigour and impartiality, abstaining from sensationalism and clearly demarcating facts from opinions;
• Repudiate censorship or other forms of illegitimate constraint on the freedom of expression and the right to inform and disclose any form of conduct that will undermine the pursuit of these rights;
• Refuse functions or tasks that may undermine their independence and professional integrity;
• Respect the guidelines and objectives defined in the editorial statute of the media outlet for which they work;
• Seek to diversify their information sources and listen to all parties with justified interests in the matters that they deal with;
• Identify, as a general rule, their information sources, and attribute the retrieved opinions to their respective authors.
Other duties whose violation may incur in disciplinary action:
• To protect the confidentiality of the information sources to the extent that is required in each situation, taking into account the provisions established in article 11, unless these sources attempt to use such protection in order to obtain illegitimate benefits or to convey false information;
• Rectify any errors or imprecisions that may be imputed to them;
• Refrain from formulating accusations without evidence and respect the presumption of innocence;
• Refrain from collecting declarations or images that have an impact on the dignity of persons in question, through the exploitation of their psychological, emotional or physical vulnerability;
• Refrain from treating people in a discriminatory manner, specifically on account of their ancestry, gender, race, language, place of origin, religion, political or ideological convictions, education, economic situation, social condition or sexual orientation;
• Refrain from collecting images and sounds through the use of unauthorised means unless this is strictly necessary in order to guarantee the safety of the persons involved and the public interest so requires;
• Refrain from directly or indirectly identifying victims of crimes against sexual self-determination and freedom, against personal honour or against the reservation of private life until a court hearing, and beyond, if the victim is under 16 years old, as well as minors who have been subject to sanctionary guardianship measures;
• Preserve, except on grounds of incontestable public interest, a reservation of intimacy, and respect for privacy, in accordance with the nature of the case and the condition of the persons in question;
• Identify themselves as a journalist, unless there are grounds of manifest public interest, and not stage or falsify situations in order to abuse the public’s good faith;
• Not use or present any other person’s work or creation as his/her own;
• Refrain from participating in the treatment or presentation of entertainment materials, specifically competitions or quizzes, and televoting programmes.
