Questions of right and wrong arise whenever people communicate. Ethical
communication is fundamental to responsible thinking, decision making, and the
development of relationships and communities within and across contexts, cultures, channels and media. Moreover, ethical communication enhances human worth and dignity by fostering truthfulness, fairness, responsibility, personal integrity, and respect for self and others. We believe that unethical communication threatens the quality of all communication and consequently the well being of individuals and the society in which we live. Therefore we, the members of the National Communication Association, endorse and are committed to practicing the following principles of ethical communication.
· We advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the integrity of communication.
· We endorse freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of dissent to achieve the informed and responsible decision making fundamental to a civil society.
· We strive to understand and respect other communicators before evaluating and responding to their messages.