MEDIJU DARBĪBA UN ŽURNĀLISTIKAS PRINCIPI KARA APSTĀKĻOS

The media, especially the news media, have a duty to provide the most objective and comprehensive information on events occurring both inside and outside a country. In a democratic world, this also involves standing up for democratic values and respecting them. The aim of this article is to explain how the role, functions and journalistic standards of the media are changing in the context of a large-scale emergency crisis such as war. The relevance of the topic is determined by the conventional war being waged in Europe at the time of writing this article: on 24 February 2022, Russia launched a military invasion of the independent state of Ukraine. The article is based both on secondary sources and primary data from a total of nine in-depth interviews with Ukrainian and Latvian public media workers with experience of journalism in war or emergency crisis situations. The authors conclude that independent media are crucial for ensuring citizens’ access to reliable information, especially in times of war, when the demand for media-generated content increases significantly. To ensure this, the media must already have a plan of action in place in peacetime to ensure the safety and security of critical personnel in the case of a war crisis. In wartime, the standard of journalistic neutrality and diversity of opinion changes significantly as the media engage in information warfare, in which censorship and propaganda are used as tools to win military victories. In the case of war, media content is not only determined by the free will and professional ethics of journalists, but also by the legal framework of the country in question, with both functional and substantive restrictions safeguarding national security and defense. Journalistic neutrality and the duty of journalists to cover a multiplicity of views are influenced by the need to take a clear position vis-à-vis the conflicting parties. State interference in the media, despite the exceptional circumstances, creates a dilemma between respect for the law and professional ethics in journalism. To mitigate this, Latvian public media have developed conflict and war journalism guidelines which stipulate acceptable deviations from journalistic standards such as neutrality, plurality of opinion and the expression of journalists’ emotions in their reporting.