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Journalism & Media vocabulary · Media Ethics and Law

Right of reply

Meaning in journalism & media, with examples

nounCommon term

In journalism & media, right of reply means: The chance, or in some countries the legal right, for a person or organisation criticised in the media to answer the claims made about them.

In Turkish: cevap ve düzeltme hakkı, cevap hakkı, tekzip hakkı

How it is used

Good practice before publication is to give the subject of a critical story a fair right of reply and enough time to respond. After publication, some laws allow people to demand that their reply is printed or broadcast.

Example sentences

  1. We emailed the company on Monday to give them a right of reply before we published.

  2. The minister's office complained that it had been given no right of reply.

Common collocations

  • give a right of reply
  • offer a right of reply
  • exercise the right of reply
  • fair right of reply
  • correctionA short published note that admits and fixes a mistake in an earlier story, such as a wrong name, figure or quote.
  • defamationThe legal wrong of publishing or saying false statements about someone that damage their reputation.
  • accuracyThe quality of being correct in every fact, name, number and quote, which is the first duty of a journalist in most codes of practice.
  • public interestThe benefit of society as a whole, used to judge whether publishing information, especially private or secret information, is justified.

More terms: Media Ethics and Law

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