Championing for real images. Poynter is reporting that the Society of News Design, a well-known visual journalism organization, has adopted a new ethics code in light of recent controversy over the integrity of photojournalism.

This move comes not long after L.A. Times staff photographer Brian Walski was fired for submitting a composite image on assignment in Iraq. At the end of August, Adnan Hajj was also dismissed from Reuters after they discovered he doctored an image to make Israeli attacks on Lebanon seem more severe.

Yet again, the ethics of journalism have been challenged by technology. Photoshop and endless other tools stand at the disposal of visual journalists to use at their discretion - either to display and distribute the actual news, or some altered version that the journalist finds more appealing. The rising number of altered images indicates the fall of the honest photograph. This is a huge issue concerning the internet news community - often just as quickly as images are sent to editors, they are put up on the web without being checked for credibility.

I applaud the development of new codes of ethics. In an endlessly changing multimedia world, the integrity of visual and textual news should be protected.  ¶ 3:53 PM