Etikken ned på jorden

The concepts of principles and rules in context with ethics are analysed and referred to judgement in questions of right and wrong, good or bad, in journalism. It is pointed out that principles of ethics tend to be too vague and abstract to be of any use, while rules of ethics tend to be too narrow, square and out of tune with reality. The alternative, it is suggested, is the open-minded discussion of concrete cases on the ground of the basic values of journalism, whenever the values oppose each other, creating a kind of dilemma.