Ethical principles in heatlh publishing

Health news has a special position due to both their corporate significance and being for the special/private areas of the readers. They also directly influence the health right, which is one of the fundamental, irreplaceable, nontransferable rights of the individual and based on the "value of being human". The health news which is made inattentively or false can lead to ending an individual's life or reducing the life quality of an individual. In this regard, in this study, which aims to reveal the ethical principles of health journalism in Turkey within the framework of social responsibility theory in relation to health journalism which requires a privileged responsibility and attention, a qualitative approach was adopted where the data was collected through document analysis and interviews. In the study, primarily, morals, ethics and professional ethics concepts were emphasized, medical ethics, press ethics were explained and the ethical problems which are encountered in health journalism were revealed. Secondly, the press principles of the countries where health journalism is actively executed, the media guides which are prepared with regard to journalists were analyzed in line with the purpose of the study and the ethical principles of health journalism were determined by taking expert opinions. As a result, the health journalist needs to observe personal rights and act responsibly in order to avoid disrupting the body unity of a person, adversely affect the life quality of a person and avoid preventing the right to access to equal and quality health services in his professional journalist behaviors while producing news. Within this framework, the Ethical Principles of Health Journalism which should be taken into consideration by the journalist in the production process of the health news are as follows: Principle of not harming, principles of honesty and objectivity, principles of privacy and private life, principle of equity. Keywords: Health journalism, Professional ethics, Ethical code, Health journalism ethics